Wage hike ballot measure could hurt Trump's chances in Florida

Florida continues to be the ultimate swing state during any given election year, and 2020 will not be any different from past elections.

Trump won Florida in 2016, and from the looks of it, the president could very well take the Sunshine State as more than 51% of Floridians opposed the Democratic Party’s play to impeach a sitting president.

Yeah, the House articles of impeachment have finally made its way over to the Senate, so a trial is all-but assured to take commence in the coming days.

But while it appears as if Floridians will support a Trump reelection, the proposed ballot initiative, “Raising Florida’s Minimum Wage,” would turn out to be an unexpected thorn in the side for the Trump Victory campaign.

With ballot organizers having collected 800,000 signatures needed for the amendment initiative to qualify to be on the ballot, and with polling showing that a majority of Floridians supporting the measure, the John Morgan-backed minimum rate hike will pass.

In order for any ballot initiative to pass, sixty percent of voters must vote in favor of the measure.

This amendment could drive enough Democrats to the polls to make it uncomfortable for the president and his team and could compromise his chances of reelection in Florida.

Florida business leaders and organizations oppose the measure, as does Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has stated that if this amendment passes, the hospitality and restaurant business in Florida will suffer, saying that it was “going to cause big, big upheavals for the restaurant industry.”

“We fully expected it to be confirmed, but that doesn’t make it a good idea,” said Edie Ousley, vice president of public affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce told POLITICO. “This ballot measure will actually hurt the very people its proponent claims it will help. In fact, Florida could very likely lose nearly half a million jobs by 2026, and we’ve seen estimates that are higher than that. This is the posterchild for a proposed constitutional amendment masquerading as a turn out weapon to impact the presidential election.”

The measure may be good for those working at minimum wage, but will ultimately hurt Florida’s all-important tourism business and lead to extraordinary job losses.

Here is how the minimum wage increase initiative reads: