DAPHNE, Ala. — Andrew Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee who narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis in the 2018 Florida governor’s race, was arrested on drug possession charges last week in southern Alabama, authorities said.
According to Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office online booking records, Gillum, 46, was arrested on July 2 by the Daphne Police Department.
He was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a class D felony; and possession of marijuana in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, WALA reported.
TMZ was the first outlet to report the arrest.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Daphne police Chief Brian Gulsby said officers pulled Gillum over around 10:45 p.m. CT on July 2 because he was “driving erratically” on U.S. 98.
Gulsby added that police observed a glass pipe on the center console of Gillum’s car, along with three packages of what turned out to be methamphetamines, according to the newspaper.
According to Gillum’s arrest report, officers found 3 grams of meth, eight marijuana cigarettes, several cigar-paper-wrapped marijuana joints, a bong, three glass pipes and four cut straws, the Miami Herald reported.
Gillum was arrested and booked into the Daphne City Jail and was transported to the Baldwin County Correctional Facility in the early hours of July 3, WJHG reported.
He was released later that day after posting bail, online records show.
Gillum had been a rising star in the Democratic Party, coming within 33,000 votes of defeating DeSantis for governor in 2018, The Washington Post reported.
While a student at Florida A&M University in 2003, Gillum, then 23, was elected to the Tallahassee City Commission for a one-year term. He would be elected as mayor of Florida’s capital city in 2014.
Gillum would encounter legal problems after his failed race for governor.
In 2020, Gillum was found intoxicated in a Miami Beach hotel room with two men, the Post reported. He entered rehab and came out as bisexual later that year. In 2022, a federal grand jury indicted Gillumon charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.
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