Ryan Nicol
With less than two months to go in the Democratic primary race for Governor, the Philip Levine campaign is out with a new ad recapping their time on the campaign trail so far.
The nearly three-minute ad is titled “Our year. Our moment.” It was played at this past weekend’s Leadership Blue summit in Hollywood, and seeks to make the case to voters that Levine is Democrats’ best bet at taking back the governor’s mansion this November.
The video highlights Levine’s push for increased gun control following February’s shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. Shots of a Levine rally are included, as well as an interview on MSNBC.
The ad also features Levine’s criticisms of Trump during the 2016 campaign.
“The way someone runs their campaign, that’s how they’re going to govern,” Levine said on CNN. “He’s unstable, he’s erratic. He hires, he fires. You can kill all the messengers you want, but you are the message.”
“Trump’s unexpected victory was a wake-up call to Democrats all across the nation, especially in our state of Florida,” explained the ad’s narrator, framing the 2018 gubernatorial election as, in part, a referendum on the Trump presidency.
The video also detailed the campaign’s efforts on the ground.
“Over the last year we’ve put together a team of 100 field staff,” said Outreach Director Robert Julien.
“We’ve opened 12 field offices. And we’re having a presence in all 67 counties. We’re not taking any vote for granted.”
The video then hits on Levine’s origin story. He discusses his being raised by a single mom, then turning $500 into a business that helped make him a millionaire. That’s one of many issues he discussed in an interview with Florida Politics from the Leadership Blue event.
Levine also sought to highlight major figures in American history and their push for change.
“Harriet Tubman did this, as she did underground what society refused to do above ground. Cesar Chavez started a movement that moved the nation. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a revolution without taking up a single arm. And John F. Kennedy asked all of us to think big and act big for the sake of our nation.”
Levine closed with a pitch to primary voters. “I’m running for governor not to do the small things, but to do big things.”
