Pence: Election is about ‘whether America remains America’
THE VILLAGES
Vice President Mike
Pence visited the heart of Florida’s largest retirement community Saturday and said he and President Donald Trump needed another term to ensure police are funded, America’s troops are respected and conservative judges keep getting appointed.
“It’s going to take at least four more years to drain that swamp,” Pence told audience in The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Central Florida with a critical bloc of conservative voters.
Undeterred by the heat and unbothered by the lack of social distancing, Pence found a receptive crowd in several thousand people who packed a parking lot to watch him. They didn’t need convincing.
“For the last four years, I’ve been totally Trump every day,” said Marcella Ritzuto, 57, who resides in The Villages and voted for the first time four years ago.
Pence encouraged Saturday’s crowd to speak to their neighbors and ignore the polls, which show former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee, and Trump virtually tied. At this time four years ago, Hillary Clinton was “measuring the curtains in the oval office,” Pence said.
“The choice in this election is whether America remains America,” he added said.
The summer of listless virtual events and campaigning from a distance is officially over — at least for Republicans. Saturday was full of familiar swing state sights and sounds —– the heartland populist John Mellencamp blaring from speakers, buttons worn and signs waved and chants of “Four more years!” Pence rolled up in a giant bus emblazoned with a picture of him and Trump.
Despite the ongoing public health concerns from the coronavirus outbreak, the Trump campaign is undergoing a blitz of in-person campaign events in Florida.
Pence held a rally with Latinos before his event in The Villages.
“The road to victory runs through Florida,” Pence told the crowd of more than 300 at the outdoor rally at Central Christian University in west Orlando.
Pence praised Trump for supporting Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido against the country’s socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro, and for reversing the openness measures the Obama administration had begun with Cuba’s government.
“In this White House, it will always be, Viva Cuba Libre!” Pence said.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, traveled across the state Friday with stops from the Panhandle to Tampa. The younger Trump will return to Tampa on Sunday, then make two stops in South Florida later in the day. Karen Pence will visit Florida on Monday.
The push will culminate Monday night when Trump ends his brief COVID-induced hiatus from the campaign trail with a rally in Sanford.
While it’s the kind of rigorous schedule that the Sunshine State typically sees in the final stretch before Election Day, the flurry of events this year comes with additional risks as the country — and Florida — grapple with a pandemic.
In the area in and around The Villages, where residents must be at least 55 years old, cases are slightly on the rise. One in every 66 residents have contracted coronavirus, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of state Department of Health data, and the rate of new deaths is 38 percent higher than the rest of the state.
The vast majority of coronavirus deaths are people over the age of 65. Yet neither that nor the recent White House outbreak that hospitalized Trump discouraged turnout, to the chagrin of Democrats.
Bill Natalie, a resident of the Villages, said he has noticed more support for former Vice President Bill Biden around town in recent weeks, but he said he believes his community will continue to be a firm Trump stronghold.
“It’s depressing to see” Biden supporters starting to have a presence in the area, said Natalie, who attended the Pence rally wearing a “Villagers for Trump” Tshirt. “But when I see hangouts like this, it feels like that impression is a little misleading.”
Sheonna Hill, 42, came to the rally from Ormond Beach with her aunt. Both wore shirts that read “Socialism Distancing,” a design that Hill said she came up with.
Hill said she hasn’t voted in a presidential election before and skipped out on voting in 2016 because “Trump was an arrogant [expletive] on TV, and I didn’t like Hillary.” But she plans on voting for Trump this year, partly to avoid what she thinks would be a socialist takeover should Biden become president.
“The only other president I wanted to vote for was [Ronald] Reagan, but I was too young,” Hill said. “Over the last four years, I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen from Trump, and we need to keep going with him.”