Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Biden campaign seeks to use momentum to fire up Florida supporters.
With chants of “Fired up! Getting ready for Joe,” and “Biden! Biden! Biden!” South Florida supporters of presidential candidate Joe Biden sought Monday to capture some of the momentum from his big weekend win in South Carolina — with just two weeks until Florida’s primary.
“It’s picking up,” said Melissa Shiff, of Pompano Beach, who was among the 75 people who gathered in Tamarac — in Florida’s most Democratic bastion, Broward County — for the effort to mobilize volunteers.
Several participants said they were convinced that the former vice president is the Democratic Party’s best hope to win Florida’s 29 electoral votes in November and defeat
President Donald Trump. But others at the Biden event weren’t 100% sold. Some said they were still considering former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Shiff traveled to South Carolina last week to work for Biden — she’d earlier done the same in Iowa — and returned home Sunday night. “I felt the momentum in South Carolina going door to door,” she said. “The energy was palpable.”
After the results of the Saturday primary became apparent, she said she started getting calls from Florida friends interested in supporting Biden.
Christine Jones of Fort Lauderdale said she’s already voted by mail for Biden. “We know that he is the person who can kick Donald Trump’s ass out of the White House,” she said. “Please go vote. Get your neighbor to vote.”
Karen P. Fortman, who leads the Broward County Presidents’ Council of Democratic Clubs and Caucuses and is president of the Davie-Cooper City Democratic Club said she thinks Florida looks good for Biden. “I think we can get the turnout in Florida for Joe.”
Broward County is the biggest single source of Democratic votes in Florida, and it’s a major priority for the Biden campaign. Stacy Eichner, originally from Weston, is the campaign’s Florida state director. She’s worked in the past at the Democratic National Committee and was the state surrogates director for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Florida’s probably the most important state
after Super Tuesday,” Eichner said. Winning the nomination requires 1,991 delegates. Florida awards 219. “It’s going to be a close delegate race.”
Still, Biden has competition. “I am actually torn between Biden and Bloomberg,” said Jill Paul, of Boca Raton, who said she sees Biden as “very genuine and down to earth.”
Sitting next to her was Cate Singer of Lake Worth, who said she’s been with Biden from the beginning because “he’s moderate; he’ll bring people together.” She was sitting next to Paul, trying to convince her to support Biden.
Amma Asantewaa of Sunrise said she, too, hadn’t decided who she’ll vote for in the March 17 primary. “For me, it’s Biden or Bloomberg,” she said. “My aim is to get Trump out of the White House.”
One candidate they all ruled out: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the progressive, who performed well in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the first three contests of the Democrats’ nominating process.
“He’s just too far left,” Singer said.
Fortman said she’d support whoever wins the party’s nomination “because what’s the option: President Trump.” Asked how she think Sanders would do in Florida in November if he wins the nomination, Fortman said, “I have a concern.”
The main speaker on Monday was U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Broward/Miami-Dade county Democrat who endorsed Biden over the weekend.
“Joe Biden is the total package. Joe Biden is a proven vote getter, and a proven leader on all of the major issues that Democrats care about,” she said. “This was an easy decision for me. Joe Biden was actually my first choice for president back to when I was a student at the University of Florida and cast my first vote for president.”
Wasserman Schultz declined to discuss Bloomberg or Sanders. She said she was focused only on promoting Biden.