Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate Adrian Wyllie started his 30-day campaign tour in Fort Myers Friday evening.
Most of the stops are at craft breweries, which campaign makes this campaign more like an elaborate bar crawl.
Wyllie is holding events in 30 breweries across the state. He kicked off this tour at the Fort Myers Brewing company.
Wyllie said he chose mostly craft breweries to make a point. The GOP-led state Legislature almost passed a bill this year backed by big beer companies. Wyllie said the bill would have made it harder for small craft breweries to sell their beer.
“We decided to do craft breweries in support of an industry and to show the difference between how Republicans and Democrats handle a problem and how Libertarians would solve it with more freedom and more free market solutions,” he said. “And the third reason is because I like craft beer.”
Wyllie said the tour is also an effort to get his name out there. Right now, the little known-candidate is polling behind Republican front-runner and incumbent Governor Rick Scott—as well as Democratic front-runner Charlie Crist. Both candidates are also polling high negatives, though.
Wyllie said the fact that both candidates are not well liked has had an impact on his own campaign.
“People are starting to know who I am,” Wyllie explained. “And they are starting to vote for me as opposed to voting for anyone but the Republican and Democrat. And that was an important step in our campaign.”
Even though it’s not much, a new Quinnipiac polls shows Wyllie has the support of about 9 percent of the state’s voters.
This means he likely won’t win the race, but pollsters say he is winning votes from independents. This could mean fewer votes for Democrat Charlie Crist in this very close election.
Wyllie’s brewery tour started in Fort Myers and will stop at the end of the month in Pensacola.
