Andrew Gillum is standing up to the NRA, and the right is getting desperate

Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, has dedicated himself to making his state safer by undoing its racially biased “Stand Your Ground” law.

The law allows a person to use deadly force if they merely have a “reasonable” belief that they are in danger of physical harm. For practical purposes, the legislation has enshrined discrimination in the law and given white people a pass for shooting people of color.

The policy was created by the NRA (National Rifle Association), and was pushed into Florida law by Republican state legislators.

Gillum has called for the law to be repealed. His Republican opponent, Ron DeSantis, has said he supports the racially biased legislation.

DeSantis has a history of making racist comments and supporting openly racist political figures. He is also strongly backed by Trump, who is a bigot.

On Election Day, DeSantis supporters sent out texts pretending to be from the Gillum campaign, which mentioned Gillum’s opposition to Stand Your Ground and made wildly false claims about his positions on taxes.

The text said Gillum wants to “raise taxes on anyone making over $25,000 a year” and that he supports “possibly a 38 percent sales tax to support public transportation.”

But Gillum has repeatedly said he isn’t raising taxes on those in the middle class or on small businesses. He doesn’t support an income tax, which Florida does not currently have.

Instead, Gillum has proposed increasing the corporate income tax on the richest 3 percent of Florida corporations. Gillum wrote that doing so will let Florida “recoup at least $1 billion back from the richest corporations and put it where we need it most  —  investing in our future.”

In a statement to Shareblue Media, the Gillum campaign blasted the false text attack.

“Florida’s Republicans are terrified that Mayor Andrew Gillum is about to break their 20-year stranglehold on the Governor’s Mansion,” said Geoff Burgan, Gillum’s campaign spokesperson. “From Congressman DeSantis’s disgusting lies and language, to these blatantly false texts, they’re reaching deep into their dirty bag of tricks.”

Gillum’s unapologetic stance in favor of safety and racial equality clearly has right-wing NRA supporters, and their preferred politicians like DeSantis, back on their heels.

And they’ve shown just how desperate they are by attempting to co-opt Gillum’s pro-safety message and smear him with lies just as voters head to the polls.