In August 2018, Andrew Gillum won Florida’s Democratic primary for governor. That meant he would be on the ballot for November’s statewide election. Gillum would be running against the incumbent, Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The morning after Gillum’s win, DeSantis warned the people of Florida that electing Gillum would “monkey this up.” DeSantis is white and Gillum is African American. Many people believed that DeSantis had made a racist comment against Gillum. DeSantis also called Gillum a socialist. During Reconstruction, whites accused black office holders in the South of “dangerous socialist experiments.”
