Arriving in Tampa directly from the United States Conference of Mayors' 85th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Gillum mingled outdoors with local officials and party members before embarking on the Yacht Starship ll, where the event took place over a dinner cruise.
Speaking for 16 minutes, Gillum said that among his biggest concerns are "the 1.5 million who didn't get access to Medicaid, the children in this state who are being told they are attending failure factories and the folks who are going to be most impacted by climate change."
Referencing his four older brothers who did not finish high school but found substantial careers in trades, the Miami Beach native stressed the importance of technical education to keep well-paying jobs in sustainable industries within the state.
"When we win this race, we'll have a radical infusion of the trades as we remove the stigma that these jobs hold," Gillum said. "Instead of outsourcing these jobs such as the solar industry, we should be training our young people to be doing that work."
Highlighting education throughout his speech, Gillum said that resources for pre-schoolers should be improved as many are arriving under-prepared for K-12.
"We need early [childhood] development [education]," Gillum said. "Forty percent of our children are showing up not ready to learn."
Gillum said the people behind Florida's education policies are addicted to high-stakes standardized tests that "don't tell us what our kids know but how well they test."
Gillum blames the Florida House, Senate and Governor Rick Scott, who have sought to gut public education funding while promoting private charter schools, which critics say lack the accountability of their public counterparts.
"They're taking public money and allowing that money to fund their friends and corporate partners to privatize the public system," Gillum said. "We've got to dismantle that machine."
Other talking points included the need for high-speed rail (which Scott rejected in 2011) and "taking back the state for regular working people."
Noticeably absent from Gillum's speech was any reference to his formal statement Friday regarding the FBI's probe into redevelopment deals in Tallahassee in which he said the agency's officials "assured me I was not the focus of an investigation."
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed city records and a local community redevelopment agency's records with ties to Tallahassee development projects including lobbyist/developer Adam Corey, a former mayoral campaign treasurer to Gillum.
When questioned again Saturday night, Gillum repeated adamantly "I am not under investigation."
Gillum faces a tough, multi-way primary contest that includes former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, also a Panhandle Democrat, and Orlando businessman Chris King, the other two Democrats who have announced so far. Also considering runs on the Dems side are Miami Beach Mayor Phil Levine and Orlando attorney John Morgan.
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2017.