 Andrew Gillum has become the first African-American nominee for Florida governor, pulling off an upset win over favorite Gwen Graham and two big-spending businessmen in a crowded Democratic primary field.  President Trump’s favored candidate, GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis, defeated state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday after riding the wave of the president's enthusiastic endorsement to victory. Greene wound up finishing fourth in the five-way pack, but he spent $10 million on ads attacking Graham ― more than she spent on television on her own behalf. In the final weeks, he was endorsed by Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who campaigned with Gillum in the closing days of the race. Gillum cut his teeth on political activism as a student government leader at Florida A&M University just a few blocks from Florida’s Capitol, where he led protests against Gov. Putnam, 44, also played up his support for Trump, but emphasized, “I am focused on Florida.” 
 
 As for the Senate race, Republicans are hoping Scott could flip the seat in a battle with Nelson, one of the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable incumbents. But in a GOP primary electorate bearing little resemblance to the one that supported former Gov. He served two terms, coinciding with Rick Scott’s years as governor, and had appeared the heir apparent to the job as Scott leaves because of term limits. Despite the populist, pro-Trump rhetoric he has delivered for years from the Fox TV studio near the U.S. Capitol, DeSantis graduated from Yale and received a law degree from Harvard. Carlos Barria/Reuters President Donald Trump talks with Ron DeSantis during a Make America Great Again Rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 2018. Yet while DeSantis’ love for and from Trump clearly helped him against Putnam in the Republican primary, it may wind up hurting him in the November election against Gillum. Democrat Margaret Good defeated the son of sitting Republican congressman Vern Buchanan in a special election for a state House seat in Sarasota earlier this year, even though the district leans solidly Republican.
– Andrew Gillum pulled off an upset victory in Florida on Tuesday to become the state's first black nominee for governor, the AP reports. The Bernie Sanders-backed liberal Democrat, currently the mayor of Tallahassee, will run against President Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis, Fox News reports, results that the AP says "immediately transformed the Florida race into one of the most closely watched gubernatorial campaigns in the country." The Huffington Post says the November election will be "a referendum" on the president. Trump congratulated DeSantis on Twitter after his win. More from the primaries in Florida and Arizona, both closely watched political battleground states, plus a runoff election in Oklahoma on Tuesday: Florida Senate race: Current Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is term-limited in that role, won the GOP nomination and will run against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and is seen as vulnerable.