Mayors: Run for Office. You Just May Win.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum stunned the Democratic Party last night with a come-from-behind victory in Florida’s primary election. He’d been trailing Gwen Graham, a former member of Congress, throughout the race. But with an endorsement from Senator Bernie Sanders, plus clear positions on defining issues such as expanding Medicaid under Obamacare and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Gillum challenged momentum into a surge at the polls.

Now Gillum will face Republican victor Ron DeSantis in the general election on November, and it’s hard to imagine two figures further apart on issues such as single-payer health care, gun control, or bald-faced racism. As a mayor, though, Gillum brings to the conversation other issues that are more salient at the local level—retail concerns that are widespread and, in aggregate, ought to add up to a platform.