Florida could be knockout punch for Sanders’ campaign
MIAMI – Florida has never been known as a place of stability, especially in its politics.
And yet stability is what has been on the minds of many Democrats in the state who said they will vote for former Vice President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s presidential primary election instead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I like some of Sanders’ ideas, but he’s a little too extreme for me,” said Jeanne Hilburn, a 76-year-old retired teacher who lives in the suburbs of Tampa. “A lot of Democrats are like me – we want stability.”
With Sanders’ campaign on the brink of collapse and Biden’s ascendant, attention is turning to places like Florida, which is holding its primary on Tuesday along with Ohio, Illinois and Arizona. Florida has 219 delegates, the largest prize of next week’s election.
Few places hold the electoral cachet of Florida, which has been among the most coveted swing states in the last three decades, including during the contentious, chaotic recount of 2000. It is a vital state for President Donald Trump, who would have almost no path to reelection without it.
Biden’s advisers are banking on a decisive Florida victory that sends a clear message that he is much better positioned to win the state and deny Trump a second term.
In 2016, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton here by 1.2 percentage points.
“Florida, as always, is pivotal in the outcome,” said Nikki Fried, who is the state’s agriculture commissioner and top elected Democrat and who endorsed Biden. “We are the ultimate swing state.”
Sanders’ support in Florida has always been tenuous. In the 2016 primary, he lost to Clinton by a nearly 2to-1 margin. This year, Sanders angered a potentially large voting bloc – Cuban Americans – by praising Fidel Castro for implementing a literacy program in the communist nation.
“There is nothing positive you can say about the conditions in Cuba. If he doesn’t understand that, it is hard to conceive that he will get any votes,” said Xavier Suarez, the first Cubanborn mayor of Miami and now running as an independent in the county mayoral race. “It’s gonna be a massacre.”
That leaves many Florida Democrats looking beyond the primary to November. Several groups have banded together to register people to vote and mobilize for November.
One of the four groups, Organizing Together 2020, is led by Fried. It will hire employees, register voters, train volunteers and then turn everything over to the party after the July convention. Another group is For Our Future, a super PAC made up largely of Mike Bloomberg’s campaign apparatus.
About 3.6 million of the state’s 13.6 million voters are registered independents, which means they can’t vote in Tuesday’s primary but are eligible to cast ballots in the general election.
“Florida is an interesting state. Depending on where you’re at, we can be very conservative, or we can be very progressive,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, a Democrat. “We also have a strong moderate and independent streak. Biden, I think he’ll do well here with Democrats and independents. And with Republicans who are looking for an alternative to President Trump.”