A white supremacist group in Idaho is behind another racist robocall targeting Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee in the Florida governor’s race.
“Well hello there. I is the negro Andrew Gillum, and I be asking you to make me governor of this here state of Florida,” the prerecorded phone message begins, with a man speaking in a caricature of a black dialect.
It ends with a disclaimer that it was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic video podcast hosted by Scott Rhodes of Idaho.
The same neo-Nazi group had already targeted Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor, with a robocall after he won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the late-August primary. The calls went to Florida residents, but it’s unclear how many received them.
It also sponsored robocalls in Iowa, using Mollie Tibbetts’ death to attack Latinos and promote white supremacy, the Des Moines Register reported. There have also been local media reports the group previously targeted local officials in California, Virginia and Washington state.
“These disgusting, abhorrent robocalls represent a continuation of the ugliest, most divisive campaign in Florida’s history,” said Gillum spokesman Geoff Burgan. “We would hope that these calls, and the dangerous people who are behind them, are not given any more attention than they already have been.”
Gillum is running against Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis, who has faced allegations of campaigning on racist dog whistles since he said in an interview the morning after the primary that Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by electing Gillum, who is running to become the state’s first African-American governor.
“Our campaign has absolutely nothing to do with this robocall and joins those in condemning it,” DeSantis spokesman Stephen Lawson said. “In fact, we would encourage the Gillum campaign to join us in rooting out and exposing once and for all those who are behind this disgusting call.”