Gubernatorial candidates have long campaigned at FAMU Homecoming without promising to boost state earmarks for HBCUs

Alex Sink performs coin toss during 2010 FAMU Homecoming game

For years gubernatorial candidates have campaigned at Florida A&M University during its Homecoming without promising to give a bigger piece of the multi-billion dollar state budget to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Florida.

Democratic candidates usually just come to the FAMU campus wearing Orange & Green and talk broadly about supporting education, but they don’t talk about giving more earmarks to the four HBCUs in the state. The candidates then spend the rest of their visits shaking hands and taking pictures.

This was recently seen in the two failed Democratic gubernatorial campaigns against GOP nominee Rick Scott.

Back in 2010, Democratic nominee Alex Sink walked around saying hello to tailgaters outside Bragg Memorial Stadium and then performed the coin toss to kick off the Homecoming game against Morgan State. But there was no announcement of a spending plan to bring more state money to FAMU, Bethune-Cookman University, Florida Memorial University, or Edward Waters College.

Charlie Crist walks over to hug Venom during 2014 FAMU Homecoming game

In 2014, Democratic nominee Charlie Crist also visited the FAMU campus during Homecoming. He stopped at Olean’s Café across from the school, shook hands with tailgaters outside Bragg Memorial Stadium, and then walked around inside the stadium waving at FAMU fans before the game started. He also gave Venom a big hug.

At an earlier campaign stop at FAMU in September 2014, Crist said “I was the guy who didn’t veto stuff for FAMU.”

That was incorrect. Crist vetoed one FAMU line item during his first year in office. He vetoed $7.5M for Pharmacy Phase II in 2007 because the university’s interim administration still had not spent any of the $2M in planning money that FAMU had received four years earlier.

Crist did approve all of the other line items for FAMU that were brought to his desk. But in his 2014 campaign, he didn’t announce a plan with a dollar amount for increasing support to FAMU or any other HBCU in Florida.

None of the current candidates who are seeking party nominations for the 2018 governor’s election have promised a dollar amount for new earmarks for HBCUs in Florida, either.

The gubernatorial campaigning at FAMU Homecoming continues to show that the leading candidates don’t see HBCUs as a priority for state spending.