Florida Democrats meet in Orlando
‘Whether it’s Biden or Mickey Mouse, we have to vote Democratic’
Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden stood and smiled along the corridors of the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World on Saturday, as Elizabeth Warren sauntered by to cheers and Andrew Yang was surrounded by his fervent supporters.
All of them were made of cardboard.
While no actual presidential candidates made it to the Florida Democratic Party’s three-day state convention, their supporters, party regulars and uncommitted delegates were all focused on one thing: turning Florida blue in 2020 and defeating President Trump.
They just had some different ideas on how to do that.
“It has to be Bernie,” said Rockledge resident Lorraine Rendon of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, at one end of the convention hall. “If it’s not Bernie, [the nominee] not going to follow through. Most of them talk about it. But will they do it?”
At the other end of the hall, “I support Joe Biden,” Chris Jones, of Fort Lauderdale, said of the former vice president. “He has the experience, he’s been around and he knows government. It’s not just about insurance for all, it’s about the country as a whole.”
Despite the lack of presidential candidates at the convention, Florida Democrats are extremely engaged in the 2020 campaign, party leaders said.
“The fact that the candidates aren’t here is because we’re 25th on the primary calendar,” Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democrats, told the Associated Press. “There’s tremendous excitement about what’s going on.”
A chief focus is voter registration, with the party devoting $3.2 million to register 200,000 Democrats by the 2020 primary.
“We believe in expanding the electorate, creating the electorate that we want, instead of accepting the electorate the pundits and consultants have said we have,” said Juan Penalosa, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party. “So we’re focusing on voter registration.”
Florida Democrats also have a $1 million voter protection program that includes a hotline to receive complaints about problems Floridians face in registering or voting.
The convention featured merchandise for candidates such as U.S. Sen. Warren, D-Massachusetts, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Buttigieg, Biden, Yang, and self-help guru Marianne Williamson. There were also tables where delegates could buy bumper stickers that read, “Republicans: Bad science, bad medicine, bad policy, bad attitude,” buttons that said, “Make America Sane Again: Impeach and Remove,” and Tshirts celebrating Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “the Notorious RBG.”
At one table, Pat and Debbie Furrie of Deltona kept watch over the lifesize cutout of Buttigieg, the only one of the 19 remaining
candidates to have had a public campaign event in Orlando when he visited The Plaza Live in August.
“I happened to notice his book popped up as a suggestion on [the audiobook app] Audible,” Pat Furrie said. “I had heard of this guy, so I said, ‘I’ll bite.’ … He was just so clear, and so honest, with a voice and tone that seems more sincere while still being confident than any other candidate I’ve heard.”
Eighty-year-old Walter O’Rourke of Bartow was also among those carrying a sign for the youngest of the candidates. Seniors have been a key constituency for Trump, who visited the sprawling 55-plus community of The Villages just a week earlier. Did O’Rourke think enough of his fellow seniors would vote for the Democrat next time around?
“First of all, you’ve got to get them to listen and turn off Fox News,” O’Rourke said. “Fox has captured a lot of [them]. … I was talking to someone, fairly welleducated, children coming along, and asked, ‘Don’t you want universal medical care, through the rest of their lives? You’re covered, you did well.’ He said, ‘I don’t care, I’ve got mine.’ ”
Retired U.S. Marine Col. Jack Jennings and his wife Becky Schaffer, of Lakeland, were “still up in the air,” Schaffer said. “But if I had to pick one today, it would be Biden. There are others I like in that group who would be a good VP
for Biden.”
Jennings was more focused on the general election.
“Whoever the Democrats put up, whether it’s Biden or Mickey Mouse, we have to vote Democratic,” Jennings said. “Every Democrat should do that, or we’ll lose Florida. The Republicans are united 95% behind Trump, there’s not 95% behind any Democratic candidate. And when we have a split in the party, we’ll lose.”
For Leslie Guerra, a precinct captain in Sanford, seeing the usually solid Republican Seminole County vote for Democrat Andrew Gillum for governor last year gave her hope that her home county may have finally turned the corner to becoming blue. “Right now, there are about [5,000] more registered Republican voters in Seminole,” she said, referring to the GOP’s 112,275 to 107,051 advantage, along with more than 90,000 unaffiliated voters. “And we’re working really hard to equal that and surpass it.”
Her top candidate was the one who was looming over every conversation in the halls – literally.
A giant cardboard head of Warren was being carried throughout the hallways, with her supporters chanting and delegates posing with it for pictures.
Warren has slowly risen in the polls to nearly become a co-leader with Biden, though Sanders, still recuperating
from his heart attack this month, is still not too far behind.
The Associated Press contributed.
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