Campaigns turn full focus on Fla. voters

Floridians are voting in record numbers ahead of the Nov. 3 election. But President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden can’t afford to be complacent in the nation’s biggest battleground, even amid historic early voting turnout.

Both campaigns will have a big presence in South Florida this weekend in an effort to continue to spur on their bases in a state that Trump must win. And strategists are looking to the coming weekend to help crystallize what the final week of the campaign will look like.

Trump will vote in Palm Beach County on Saturday morning, casting a ballot in person for the first time since registering to vote as a Floridian last year. Also Saturday, the Biden campaign will send former President Barack Obama to North Miami for a “drive-in” rally.

The dueling events come as Democrats attempt to hold onto their initial big lead over Republicans, a margin that has thinned since in-person voting began Monday. Polls show a tight race in Florida.

As of Friday morning, state data showed that more than 4.7 million Floridians had cast ballots, equal to about half the entire turnout in Florida in 2016. Of those ballots, 2.1 million have been cast by Democrats, 1.7 million by Republicans, and about 1 million by independents and voters with minor party affiliations.

“At this point, we’re headed for record turnout here,” Democrat strategist Steve Schale told reporters Friday.

For now, Biden has a lead on Trump in the range of 500,000 ballots cast, according to an analysis of early voters’ political leanings by Democrat tech data firm Hawkfish, using data from the Florida secretary of state and its own voter “support scores.”