Democratic politician idolized by many is arrested for drugs

“Andrew Gillum, the former Florida gubernatorial candidate who was once hailed as one of the Democratic Party’s brightest young stars, was arrested in Alabama on three drug charges,” reports The Daily Beast. He almost became Florida’s governor in 2018, narrowly losing to Republican Ron DeSantis. He managed to lose the election, even though journalists favored Gillum over DeSantis in the articles they wrote. The media seemed to love Gillum, who was very trendy, left-wing, and black.

“Gillum, 46, was booked into the Baldwin County Jail on Thursday” for “possession of dangerous drugs, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.”

Gillum’s car was stopped Thursday evening after a cop “saw him driving erratically on U.S. Highway 98 in Daphne.” The cop “spotted a glass pipe on the vehicle’s center console,” leading to a search of the car. Gillum was released on Friday after posting bond of $6,500.

Cops found three grams of methamphetamine, eight marijuana joints, a bong, and three pipes in Gillum’s car. The felony charge of possessing dangerous drugs is the most serious count and carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine under Alabama law. The other charges are misdemeanors.

The Daily Beast notes that

The arrest is the latest chapter in a years-long personal and legal unraveling for Gillum, whose political career effectively collapsed after his razor-thin loss to Republican Ron DeSantis in Florida’s 2018 governor’s race. Gillum lost by a mere 30,000 votes.

His troubles first exploded into public view in March 2020, when Miami Beach police responded to the Mondrian South Beach hotel after reports that a man had suffered an apparent drug overdose. Officers found Gillum inside the hotel suite with two other men. According to the police report, investigators recovered three small bags containing suspected crystal methamphetamine from the room, although no drugs were found on Gillum himself. Prosecutors never filed charges because there was insufficient evidence tying him directly to the narcotics.

Gillum has previously revealed that he has “a serious problem with alcohol.” After he was found by cops in a hotel room with a male prostitute, “Gillum publicly came out as bisexual.”

“The Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause that he improperly accepted gifts—including trips to Costa Rica and New York and tickets to the Broadway musical Hamilton—from individuals who were actually undercover FBI agents. Gillum agreed to pay a $5,000 civil fine as part of a settlement that resolved most of the allegations.”

A hung jury failed to convict him on “wire fraud and conspiracy charges. After the judge declared a mistrial on those counts, prosecutors decided to dismiss them.”

A campaign staffer for Andrew Gillum said that Florida is a “cracker state” and that the Florida legislature had to become racially black for Gillum’s agenda to advance.

Gillum also attended an event with an anti-semitic group after the massacre of 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue. As The Daily Caller’s Molly Prince notes, “Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum spoke at an event hosted by an anti-Jewish organization the day after the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.”