Recent elections have all but sealed Florida as a red state, but President Joe Biden's (D) campaign believes that he could flip Florida blue. This week, in an effort to target President Donald Trump's (R) new home state, the Biden campaign announced that investing in Florida is a top priority on its road to reelection.
In the 2020 election, Florida decidedly backed President Trump with 51% of the vote compared to the 48% that President Biden received. Though the 2022 midterm election proved that the state is growing redder with each election, President Biden's campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez announced in a memo that investing in the sunshine state is a top priority in the incumbent's road to 270 electoral votes.
Chavez Rodriguez highlighted the importance of flipping the sunshine state, sharing that "Florida is not an easy state to win, but it is a winnable one for President Biden, especially given Trump's weak, cash-strapped campaign, and serious vulnerabilities within his coalition."
She touted the hiring of three operatives that will run the Biden campaign's efforts in Florida, adding that Florida was part of the fall and spring ad buys, which cost $25 million and $30 million respectively.
The Biden campaign has also focused on Latino outreach, making Florida an important state given its vast Cuban, Venezuelan, and Puerto Rican population.
For the Biden campaign, the state is looked at as a place "where President Biden has a compelling story of results." The campaign also warned that "Trump and Rick Scott's extreme agenda is making Floridians' lives worse, and the Democratic coalition is growing and energized."
With news this week that Amendment 4 will be on the ballot in November, the Biden campaign is also hopeful that this will help Democrats win as they have campaign on their support for abortion access.
May 1st marks the day when Florida will implement a 6-week abortion ban, and Democrats are vying for voters to choose a different path for abortion access in the state.
“This new, extreme abortion ban – one that Donald Trump personally paved the way for – will now amount to a ban for the entire Southeast. Women in need of reproductive care throughout the region now face a choice between putting their lives at risk or traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to get care,” Chavez Rodriguez said.
