Especially if we don’t fuck it up.
People forget how many Democrats held the high office in our state before a series of GOP governors were elected and fucked it all up. Having a third-party candidate who’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative isn’t actually that much of a stretch.
Overwhelmed, I take a moment to clear my throat and stare out at the crowd. The lights from the cameras make it hard to distinguish any one person from another out there. Behind me on stage are our core campaign staff—Comms, Volunteers, Finances—all of them, and their immediate families. Dad and Katie and their four kids.
I take a deep breath and think about the quiet moment I shared upstairs with Carter.
Loyalty.
The crowd finally quiets, waiting.
“I just got off the phone with Steven Shallows a few minutes ago, and he’s the last of my opponents to concede the race to us.”
If I thought the crowd thundered before, they are positively howling now, deafening. I reach out and tap the home button on Carter’s tablet to unlock it and punch in the familiar code. It’s already queued to my acceptance speech, in a large enough font I can read it without picking it up or having to lean over it or squint.
Carter thinks of everything.
I smile, nodding, not waiting for the crowd to quiet this time, and hoping they settle themselves when I start to speak into the microphone.
“I’d like to congratulate my opponents on their races, and hope that we can all put that past us now and work together forourstate. I’m not a governor for any one party—I’m a governor for the great state of Florida, and I representallof its residents, even if they didn’t vote for me.”
I can tell this speech is going to take a while by how they’re cheering. I let them have this time, because I don’t want to appear ungrateful.
But I’m tired.
Oh, so tired, and I know I can’t go to sleep yet. I also know Carter probably has a whole morning’s worth of TV interviews, state and national, already scheduled for me for tomorrow.
“It’s time to put partisan politics behind us. The time is now for us to put our state first. To put the citizens of our state first. To put its schoolchildren first. To put its environment first. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, and I’m eager to get busy. We have teachers who should be paid far more than they are, and not just to make sure kids can take tests. They need the freedom to actually educate. I want to pay our teachers what they’re worth, and draw even more of the best teachers to our state to teach our kids. I want Florida to be known as the best state to educate your child in, and the best state to be a teacher in. I want to eliminate all the useless testing and return our focus to educating our children.
“Our kids deserve clean air and clean water. Our health depends on it. Our tourism dollars depend on it. Our wildlife and agriculture and aquaculture depends on it. And I’ve made no secret that I’m coming after pork projects. No more eighty-thousand-dollar office renovations on the taxpayers’ dime. You have spoken loud and clear and sent a message to both major parties that we aredonemessing around. We aredonelistening to the same-old same-old, we aredonewith their excuses as to why things can’t get done, and we aredonedoing business as usual, with a wink and a nod behind closed doors.
“We have a lot of work to do. We can’t immediately achieve everything we want to do. Changing our education system is going to take time. I want to focus immediately on working with utilities to harden our infrastructure against natural disasters. We can do a lot, but I need every one of you to put pressure on your local lawmakers. I need each and every one of you to get to know your local lawmakers by name. If they walk up to you in a grocery store, I want you to know who they are. I want you to show up at their offices and demand town halls and push them to workwithme, withallof us, and not let partisan politics grind us to a halt. I want you to know their voting records and hold them accountable for their actions. Don’t let them get away with business as usual.
“We’ve proven that both parties are imperfect. I’m not saying I’m perfect. I’m not saying I won’t screw up. But I’m saying that you have spoken, and I’m listening. I’ll keep listening. I won’t turn a deaf ear to you just because the conversations are difficult or things I don’t want to hear. But the only way we can move forward is if you make your voices loudly known to everyone who goes to Tallahassee. To everyone sitting in a county commission chamber. To everyone who sits on city commissions and councils, our local school boards, and even down to your HOA boards.
“We all have a voice. We all deserve to be heard. I’m a gun owner. I don’t want to take your guns, but I think we can all agree we don’t want kids getting mowed down at school, and therehasto be a better way. The NRA and its foreign dollars are no longer welcomed in our state capitol.”
Of all the points I brought up, that one get the loudest applause, and I twist off the cap from the bottle of water Carter puts in my hand and use the natural pause to take a drink. I let the cheers and applause spin out, which turns into raucous chants ofTAY-LOR! TAY-LOR!
Let the network cameras eatthatup. Of everything I say, that’s the lightning rod that will draw press coverage, and I welcome it. I know we’re live in at least Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Miami. And MSNBC and CNN are likely carrying this live, too.
Fuck FNB, I don’t care if they’re showing it. Them or Fox.
No one thought I’d do it, but we did.
The underdog.
The third-party nobody.
The next governor of the great state of Florida.
I still have another paragraph to get through. “There are too many people for me to thank to remember them all.” I glance to either side of me and list the major people who are there, list a few who aren’t. I specifically call out Dad, Katie, and the kids.
Fuck you, Mom.
“I also want to thank all of you who voted for me, who knocked on doors, who called people, who drove people to polling places, who helped register voters.Youdid this.Youare every bit as responsible for this, and don’t think we’re going to forget it. We ran a campaign without dark money. We ran a campaign without the NRA’s help—inoppositionto the NRA. I’m proud to be anF-minuscandidate in the eyes of the NRA. We ran a campaign listening toyou. We ran a campaignforyou.Youmade this possible, and you have every right to celebrate this victory asyourvictory.”
I go off-script here. “Last but not least, I want to thank Benchley Evans, for all his hard work behind the scenes, for believing in us and in our campaign, and for believing enough in our goals to support us. Also, because he’s the father of your new Lieutenant Governor-Elect. And, of course, I want to thank your Lieutenant Governor-Elect, Susannah Evans.”
