Andrew Gillum Quotes
I ran as a Democrat. I am a Democrat. And, frankly, the values that I hold, I think, are consistent with the values of the Democratic Party. In fact, I think they are the values shared by the majority of Floridians.
Gillum, Andrew. Interview with Dana Bash. State of the Union, CNN, 2 Sept. 2018.
As a relatively political unknown, he took the opportunity to tell the press and the public that he was a part of the New York Tammany Hall Machine. At the time most NY politicians saw this as a political assurance to the voters—as opposed to the reformers who might change things. Political machines were mostly affiliated with the Democratic Party in the large cities. The corruption tended to b Republican outside the cities, except in the South where all government was Democratic in reaction to the Civil War Republican role. When the Democrats strove to eliminate racial discrimination in the 1960s. the racists of the South persuaded the Whites to shift to the Republican Party which then dominated most of the South. The people who controlled the corrupt machines however did not change. The corruption of the Southern machines just became Republican labeled.
The minister's remarks had major repercussions. They were made at a rally for and in the presence of James Blaine, then a U. S. Senator and the Rupublican presidential nominee. Blaine refused to disavow Buchard's remark. That refusal became a major campaign issue, and "Rum, Romanism, and rebellion" became a negative campaign slogan. Blaine lost to Grover Cleveland. The difference turned out to be a 1,000 vote loss of New York State whose large Irish Catholic population went against Blaine.
The presidential nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 split the Democratic party. Governor Hill was a strong party man, but couldn't abide Bryan's "free silver" and other positions, so when a reporter asked him if he was still a Democrat, and would campaign for Bryan, the governor answered:
Andrew Demese Gillum is an American former politician who served as the 126th mayor of Tallahassee. He served as a Tallahassee city commissioner from 2003 until 2014, first elected at the age of 23.
