Democratic gubernatorial
candidate Gwen Graham pledges to take on forprofit schools, pharmaceutical companies and President Donald Trump during a town hall in Orlando.
New Orlando resident and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham pledged to take on for-profit schools, pharmaceutical companies and President Donald Trump during a town-hall meeting in Orlando on Thursday night.
The event was the first of a series of town halls hosting all four Democratic candidates for governor, organized by the Central Florida chapters of Grassroots Progressives, the Women’s March, Indivisible, Tuesday Resistance and Challenge Politics.
The former U.S. representative from Tallahassee who grew up in Miami-Dade County, recently moved her campaign headquarters to Orlando and said she recently moved here as well.
Graham, who was the main target of her Democratic opponents — former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and Winter Park businessman Chris King — during Wednesday’s debate in Tampa, stressed the ultimate importance of defeating the Republican candidate in November.
“It is a hollow victory to win the primary and not win the general,” Graham told the crowd of about 150. “I’m running to win the general. On Nov. 6, 2018, I’m going to invite all of you to the biggest celebration.”
She said voters hear during every election cycle how that election is the most important of their lives.
“But guess what?” she said. “This really is the most important election of our lifetime. I never thought I was going to run for anything. But it’s this race I was meant to run and win. … After eight years of being governor, I will have Florida back on the right path.”
After talking about priorities — including using lottery dollars to add money for education and Florida Forever funds to pay for environmental protection; banning fracking and offshore drilling; increasing the minimum wage; and approving paid sick leave — Graham took questions from the audience.
She called for increased technical education and training in schools to provide a needed workforce for projects such as the Coast Guard cutter construction contract she helped bring to North Florida. She also said she was unsure Miami would land the new Amazon headquarters but said, “I want the next Amazon, whatever that is.”
“But we’ve got to raise our minimum wage,” she added. “We’ve got to. I can’t wait. It’s $8.25 an hour. No one can live on that. When I hear [Gov.] Rick Scott say, “Jobs, jobs, jobs,’ I think, yeah, you have to work three jobs just to [live].”
Graham said the state should expand Medicaid, saying Floridians are losing access to insurance because “people in Tallahassee are putting ideology over people.” She wants to create a public option for residents to be able to buy into the same health insurance state legislators get.
On solar energy, she said it cost more to use it as part of her family’s energy source in Tallahassee than it would cost not to use it.
“Guess who controls that?” she said. “Utility companies. They control the Legislature and the Public Service Commission and don’t allow third-party ownership of solar energy. … We need to break the lock hold utility companies have on this issue, and we will get it done. I don’t want it to be a question about whether to use solar energy or not, because a lot of people can’t [afford to] decide.”
Her “number one commitment,” she said, would be to restore public education.
“The initial thought was charter schools would be community-based schools, not for profit,” Graham said. Now, “they’ve been bastardized [into] for-profit machines. The charter school industry — and it’s an industry — and there’s a difference between an industry and a school system. And people are making money on the backs of our kids. Shame on them. Shame on them.”
King is scheduled to appear at the next town hall Thursday. Levine is scheduled for May 3, and Gillum for May 31. slemongello@ orlandosentinel.com; 407-418-5920; Twitter: @stevelemongello