Florida House District 8: Gallop Franklin II takes Democratic nomination in race to replace Alexander
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Gallop Franklin II took an early lead and withstood a surge of Gadsden County support for Pastor Gregory James in a four-way Democratic primary for Florida House District 8 Tuesday night.
Franklin now advances to the general election ballot in November to represent a district that takes in all of Gadsden, west Leon County and Tallahassee's South City and Bond neighborhoods.
Franklin jumped out to an 11-point lead with the counting of early voters and mail-in ballots. Initial results posted shortly after the polls closed gave Franklin 34% of the vote to attorney Hubert Brown's 23%, with James and community organizer Marie Rattigan trailing with 19% and 15%.
Live Results: Florida primary election 2022: See live results from Tallahassee, Leon County voters
The race quickly tightened as James revealed his strength when the Florida Division of Elections began posting results from Gadsden County's 25 precincts.
James captured 39% of the vote there and moved into second place with 27% of the overall vote.
While Gadsden results enabled James to trim four points off of Franklin's lead, Franklin's support in Leon did not waver and enabled him to hold the lead with 30% of the vote.
That left Brown and James to jockey for second place through the night with James claiming 27% of the overall vote, Brown 24%, and Rattigan 11%.
Sharon Lettman-Hicks, who qualified for the race but was then indicted on federal campaign finance violations in connection with Andrew Gillum's 2018 gubernatorial campaign, still managed to receive 5% of the vote (1,224 votes).
The candidates campaigned under the radar, away from television cameras and reporters’ eyes, as they sought the nomination to fill a vacancy created when Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, decided not to seek reelection.
Alexander’s decision came in the wake of a sexual harassment allegation by a former Florida A&M University athletic employee.
The fall of Ramon Alexander: 'Recklessness': Rep. Ramon Alexander apologizes amid sexting, harassment allegations
Franklin and Brown raised a combined total of more than $256,000 for their campaigns and spent more than half ($131,000) on direct mail flyers.
James had less to work with, raising $39,000 for the campaign.
Franklin did no radio and television advertising, volunteering he didn’t have the money to cut through the clutter to be effective.
“Oftentimes you want to be able to dominate a medium and this campaign was so short, the medium that we decided to dominate was direct mail. That's going to hit everybody's mailbox,” said Frankin who had raised $116,000 for the campaign.
In addition to the $68,000 for mailers, Franklin put another $12,000 into signs and about $5,000 in digital advertising.
The campaign was managed by Delivery Strategies of Arlington, VA, a media firm that has done work for Sen. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, and U.S. senators Ralph Warnock of GA, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA.
Live election results: See results from Tallahassee, Leon County voters
Florida primary 2022 updates: Leon County voters head to the polls
Brown reports he spent $63,000 on direct mail, and another $41,000 on radio, $5,700 for text messages and $1,300 to purchase campaign t-shirts.
“That’s on me, not my campaign (staff),” said Brown about the t-shirts. “I have a big family and it’s good advertising, if they wear them.”
Brown’s campaign was guided by Resonance Campaigns of Washington, D.C. The firm also handled media for President Joe Biden’s campaign and has worked with Congresswoman Rashida Talib, D-MI, a member of the so-called “Squad,” four progressive congresswomen who had been targeted with racists tweets by former President Donald Trump.
James spent about $23,000 on print advertising and another $3,300 on radio. He was unavailable for comment Tuesday night. The campaign had consulted with the Tampa media firm Molly-Dodd Adams.
All four candidates agreed that poverty is the number one issue facing the District.
The U.S. Census pegs the poverty rate at 21.9%, compared to the statewide average of 12.4%.
There were few policy differences among the candidates.
They agreed Florida A&M University could serve as the district’s chief economic engine, and pledged to secure increased infrastructure money in the state budget to boost economic growth, and to nurture small businesses.
Brown proposed financial grants as one way to grow local businesses. Franklin talked about apprenticeship programs and a trained workforce as another way.
James wanted to refocus education to provide opportunities.
But in the end Franklin's bet against conventional wisdom and focusing on direct mail and digital advertising instead of broadcast paid off.
"I am confident in the strategy that we had and I wouldn't change anything," said Franklin Tuesday night after claiming the nomination with a 2.6% lead over James after all precincts had reported.
Franklin will face Republican Curt Bender in November in a district that leans heavily Democratic with the same economic development message he campaigned on in the primary.
"With economic development your main focus you are speaking to all parts of the political spectrum," said Franklin.
Franklin reports $18,000 remaining in his account.
Bender has missed four campaign finance reporting deadlines since he qualified as a House District 8 candidate in June.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Gallop Franklin II as Gallop Franklin III.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: House District 8: Gallop Franklin wins Democratic Primary
