Florida Democratic governor candidates call for 2018 unity

HOLLYWOOD — Florida’s three announced Democratic gubernatorial candidates agreed on most issues at a forum Saturday, from education to the economy to faith, but got their loudest cheers when they called for ending a 20-year string of Republican governors in 2018.

Speaking to 300 Democratic faithful at the state party’s annual fundraiser, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and entrepreneur Chris King all said Florida needs to move away from the policies of Govs. Rick Scott and Jeb Bush by getting a Democrat elected for the first time since 1994. Scott is termlimited and cannot run for a third term. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is the leading Republican candidate.

All three said the state needs to raise its $8.10 minimum wage, with Gillum and Graham expressly calling for $15 an hour. All said the state needs to improve its education system by supporting traditional public schools and reversing Scott’s and Bush’s emphasis on charter schools. And all said Democrats must stop giving the Republican Party a monopoly when it comes to messages of faith.

Gillum, who has been mayor of Florida’s capital city since 2014, said the party needs to push an “unapologetic” progressive message and not cede the state’s rural and traditionally conservative areas to the Republicans.

“We are not trying to be ‘Republican light,’ ” he said. He got a big laugh when he said he campaigned recently at The Villages, the famously conservative retirement complex in central Florida — “Lord, have mercy.”

Graham, the daughter of former senator and governor Bob Graham, said that when she hears Scott’s frequent mantra — jobs, jobs, jobs — “It means many people are having to work multiple jobs just to get by.”

“We have got to fix that,” said Graham, who served one term in Congress from north Florida.

King is a political newcomer who founded a company that invests in senior and low-income housing developments.