In the audio of one robocall placed on Friday and obtained by The New York Times, a man pretending to be Mr. Gillum can be heard talking in the exaggerated accent of a minstrel performer. “Well hello there,” it begins, “I is Andrew Gillum.” He then talks for a little over a minute about mud huts and unfair policing practices, and asks repeatedly for the listener’s vote. The recording, reported on Friday by The Tallahassee Democrat, ends with a man saying that the message was paid for by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based website and podcast with white supremacist and anti-Semitic content.  Racist robocalls targeting Andrew Gillum, the first black nominee for Florida governor from a major party, have been placed to residents from an out-of-state white supremacist entity.
– Ron DeSantis swears he meant nothing racist by his "monkey this up" comment, but a new robocall in the Florida gubernatorial race definitely did: Set to the background of jungle music and screeching monkeys, the New York Times reports that the minute-long audio clip begins with a man saying, "I is Andrew Gillum. We Negroes . . . done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an stone." The call, which went out to an unknown number of recipients, is apparently the work of an Idaho-based white supremacist, anti-Semitic group called the Road to Power. The group is also behind an effort in Iowa to drive anti-immigration policy in response to the killing of Mollie Tibbetts. A rep for DeSantis called the ad "appalling and disgusting. Hopefully, whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action." The Gillum camp called it "reprehensible," while asking the Washington Post to "Please don't give it undeserved attention." Current Gov. Rick Scott joined the men seeking to replace him in denouncing the ad in a tweet: "There is no room for any racial politics here in Florida — none. Florida is a melting pot of people from all over the globe, and we are proud of it. No attempts to divide people by race or ethnicity will be tolerated, from anyone. THIS. STOPS. NOW."