Obama plans South Florida campaign visit

Former President Barack Obama will campaign in Florida on Friday to help Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

The former president will appear with Gillum and Nelson at Ice Palace Films Studios, the Florida Democratic Party announced Monday.

Free tickets must be picked up in person at one of four locations. One ticket per person will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tickets will be available from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. The pickup locations are:

■ Fort Lauderdale: 1033 NW Sixth St., Suite 206;

■ Miami Gardens: 16190

NW 27th Ave.;

■ North Miami: 822 NE 125th St., Suite 110; and

■ Coral Gables: 354 Minorca Ave.

The timing of Friday’s event has not been released.

The former president’s visit comes in the final days of the midterm elections, which are widely seen as a referendum on the performance of his successor, President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Trump holds one of his Make America Great Again campaign rallies in Fort Myers. Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis told one of his own campaign rallies, in Coral Springs on Sunday, that he was looking forward to having Trump back in the state.

On Saturday, the president returns to Florida for a MAGA rally at Pensacola International Airport in the Panhandle.

Each of the rallies is aimed at ginning up turnout in areas that lean toward one of the two parties — Democrats in South Florida, for example.

Democrats are hoping for higher than usual turnout among black voters in the Nov. 6 election. The ObamaNelson-Gillum event location is in the historically black Overtown section of Miami.

Obama has been turning up regularly on the campaign trail this fall and he often campaign on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

In 2014, then Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist didn’t have Obama come to Florida on his behalf, an attempt to avoid energizing Republican voters who didn’t like Obama. The Crist campaign’s decision sparked lots of second-guessing, especially after he lost the election to Gov. Rick Scott by just 1 percentage point.

“I’m proud and humbled to have President Obama, my friend and a true patriot, on the campaign trail here in Florida,” Gillum said in a statement. “With President Obama’s help, we’re going to bring it home for Florida this November.”

Nelson, who served with Obama in the U.S. Senate, said the two have been friends “since I first introduced him to Florida in 2005, when he was a rising political star.”

Scott, who can’t seek reelection because of term limits, is challenging Nelson.

MIKE STOCKER/SUN SENTINEL Days before the 2016 election, President Barack Obama held a campaign event to promote early voting during a rally for Hillary Clinton at Florida International University in Miami.