TAMPA -- Andrew Gillum, who lost the race for Governor last year with millions unspent in his campaign fund, is channeling some of that money toward voter registration ahead of the 2020 elections.
The Democrat and former mayor of Tallahassee made an appearance at the University of South Florida in Tampa Thursday (16th) to announce he's giving $100,000 from his nonprofit group, Forward Florida, to the Florida Democratic Party to register voters. He's also donating $400,000 to other groups that he says will be working to register voters in black and brown communities.
In March, Forward Florida announced plans to register a million Florida voters before the 2020 election.
Gillum said the drive is not only about shifting Florida's 29 electoral votes to the Democrats, it's about getting more of them elected to the state legislature and local offices. "The (2020) census will commence, and the Legislature that is seated at that time will draw (legislative and congressional district) maps." He said the consequences of Democrats losing elections include restrictions that lawmakers imposed on felons seeking to vote after Amendment 4 passed at the ballot box last year.
Gillum's nonprofit is funded at least in part by unspent money from his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, which left $3 million in the bank on Election Day. Orlando attorney and referendum activist John Morgan recently criticized Gillum for leaving that cash unspent and suggested he should use the money to pay restitution that state lawmakers voted to require of felons before they can register to vote.