Politics

Former Democrat Rising Star Arrested Again On Drug Charges

The Circus, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Police arrested former 2018 Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Thursday in Daphne, Alabama.

Daphne police booked Gillum — the former Mayor of Tallahassee — into Baldwin County Jail on charges of possessing dangerous drugs including marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. Gillum won his state’s 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary in a major upset, before narrowly losing the general election to now Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The race between Gillum and DeSantis was decided by only 0.4% of the vote remained contested until weeks until after polls closed.

Gillum reportedly overdosed on meth in 2020 after paramedics found him and a gay male escort — who claimed to be a “pornstar performer —  at the Mondrian Hotel in South Beach, Florida, according to POLITICO. The progressive Democrat is married with three children.

The Baldwin Sheriff’s office and Gillum did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. The Daphne Police Department, told DCNF it would not comment on the arrest.

In 2022, a federal grand jury indicted Gillum on charges of wire fraud, false statements and conspiracy. Between 2016 and 2019, the count indictment alleged that Gillum and National Black Justice Coalition chief executive officer Sharon Lettman-Hicks committed wire fraud by obtaining funds from “various entities” and individuals.

A judge dismissed Gillum’s charges the following year. Jurors acquitted him on lying to the FBI but could not reach a verdict on the accounts of fraud and wire tapping, The Hill reported.