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| Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum at St. Ruth Missionary Baptist Church in Dania Beach |
Gillum finished with 41.6 percent among black Democrats who said they planned to vote in the primary. That’s 19 more points than the 22.6 percent he had two weeks ago. He was also the #1 choice of black Democratic voters in that poll.
The increase comes after a new round of TV ad buys for Gillum and the news coverage he has received from his endorsement by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
It looks like Gillum has swayed many of the black voters who previously said they planned to vote for real estate investor Jeff Greene. Greene was the top candidate of black voters in the St. Pete Polls report released July 15th, with 23.4 percent. That went down to 21.7 percent two weeks later and then down again to 12.8 percent in the newest poll released on August 19th.
Some of the black voters who previously said they were backing former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham might have also switched to Gillum. Graham went from 18.3 percent in the July 15th report to 14.8 percent in the July 31st report to 13.1 percent in the August 19th poll.
Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine also saw a decrease by 1.6 to 19.2 percent in the new poll. Back in the July 15th report, Levine was #2 behind Greene in support among black Democratic voters with 19.1 percent. His support among black voters looks like it has remained steady, overall.
There is still time for the numbers to change between now and the Tuesday, August 28th primary election. A total of 27.2 percent of black Democrats said that they had already voted and 72.8 percent said that they were planning to vote.