Andrew Gillum challenges ‘What’s impossible?’ in first TV ad

Andrew Gillum

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is challenging thinking about what’s impossible in his first television commercial, being launched today with a modest buy that will ramp up next week.

Gillum’s 30-second spot, “What’s impossible?”, seeks to define him as someone who already has a record of succeeding against long odds, as the son of the bus driver who grew up to become Tallahassee’s mayor and win a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association. The ad also offers Gillum’s promises to increase public education spending by $1 billion, and to accept the federal Medicaid expansion.

Running the lowest-budget campaign among the five Democrats and two Republicans seeking the governor’s office this year, Gillum’s commercial touts that underdog status and explicitly asks those viewing it to contribute to his campaign to keep the commercial on the air.

“Is it impossible to come from nothing, to be outspent ten to one, and win?” he asks. “Share this, buy a TV ad and prove the impossible.”

His campaign is spending $60,000 now to put it on statewide cable, including on CNN and MSNBC, starting Wednesday, and said it would make a six-figure purchase to put it on broadcast TV in Tampa, Orlando and West Palm Beach starting next week.

Gillum faces Jeff Greene, Philip Levine, Chris King, and Gwen Graham in the Aug. 28 Democratic primary. The first three have poured millions of dollars of their own money into their campaigns and all four have campaign funds far in excess of Gillum’s, though Gillum also has a political committee that has raised a couple million dollars, mainly through out-of-state donors.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories