Andrew Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor who came within a whisker of becoming Florida’s governor in 2018, has been arrested on drug charges in Alabama, authorities said. News of the arrest surfaced Tuesday and quickly drew attention across Florida, where Gillum remains a well known political figure.
According to the Daphne Police Department, officers pulled Gillum over on the night of July 2 along U.S. Highway 98 after observing his vehicle being driven erratically. During the stop, an officer reported seeing a glass pipe on the center console, which led to a search of the car. Police said they recovered several rolled marijuana cigarettes and three packages of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Gillum, 46, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana. He was booked into the Daphne City Jail and later transferred to a Baldwin County facility. Jail records indicate he was released the following day.
The arrest revives a difficult chapter for a politician once seen as a rising national star. In 2018, Gillum won the Democratic nomination for governor and lost to Republican Ron DeSantis by a razor thin margin of fewer than 34,000 votes, a result close enough to trigger an automatic recount. He served as Tallahassee’s mayor from 2014 to 2018.
The years since have been turbulent. In 2020, Gillum was connected to an incident at a Miami Beach hotel where police responded to a medical emergency and reported finding suspected drugs. He later announced he was entering rehabilitation. In 2022, he faced federal charges related to campaign finance; he was acquitted on one count, a jury deadlocked on others, and the remaining charges were eventually dropped.
As of Tuesday, Gillum had not issued a public statement addressing the latest arrest, and the charges remain allegations that will be resolved through the legal process. For many in Florida who once viewed him as the future of the state’s Democratic Party, the news landed as another chapter in a long and complicated story.
