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Members of Florida’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention threw their support Monday to Vice President Kamala Harris, a day after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election campaign.
As part of a rapidly moving effort to coalesce support behind the vice president, a group of Florida party leaders held a call with reporters to back Harris’ bid to become president and pointed to increased enthusiasm they hope translates down the ballot.
“It is the Republicans’ dream to sit back and watch us fight each other and create chaos,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Miami Gardens Democrat who chairs the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party. “But we don’t have to show them chaos. We can show them unity, and we can show them strength.”
Biden, 81, faced growing pressure to leave the race after a poor showing June 27 during a debate with former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
After Biden’s announcement Sunday that he was dropping out and supporting Harris, Democrats across the country scrambled to declare a new allegiance and avoid a potentially chaotic, brokered convention next month in Chicago.
The Florida Democratic Party said in a news release Monday that 236 members of the state’s delegation to the convention had made the switch to Harris. The state has a 254-member voting delegation.
Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said the speed of support for Harris isn’t surprising, as talks have been underway for “a hard couple of weeks.”
“With Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket for president, I know that everything is possible at this moment,” Fried said. “Florida is in play. Florida is winnable, not just at the top of the ticket, but certainly down ballot.”
Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, expressed hope that enthusiasm for Harris can help break the Republican supermajority in the state House. She cited issues such as abortion rights that Democrats hope will attract swing voters and cited a special-election win this year by Rep. Tom Keen, D-Orlando, in Central Florida’s House District 35.
“With abortion access being one of the top issues, it matters to have someone at the top of the ticket who is a trusted voice on that issue,” Driskell said.
Driskell said Democrats were able to get many independent voters to support Keen by talking about issues that the voters cared about, “namely abortion access and property insurance. So, having someone at the top of the ticket like Vice President Harris, who’s a trusted voice on abortion access and is a trusted voice on affordability issues, that makes all the difference in some of these races.”
But Republicans quickly pivoted their opposition from Biden to Harris.
Gov. Ron DeSantis described Harris, a former California attorney general and U.S. senator, as “too vacuous, too liberal and too unaccomplished for the voters,” while calling the effort to replace Biden with Harris as “just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power highlighted a poll showing Harris down 10 points in Florida to Trump and said, “We are going to win and win big.”
While not running for a second term, Biden can remain in the White House until January, when a new president takes office. Several Florida Republicans, however, called for him to step down as president.
“Today’s (Sunday’s) Biden announcement reminds us that the Democrat Party is run by elites, who are obsessed with power and indifferent to the very democracy they lecture us about,” House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, tweeted on X. “If Biden is too feeble to run for President, then how can he remain President?”
Biden’s announcement Sunday freed up Florida delegates to vote for any candidates of their choosing as convention bylaws allow pledged delegates to change their votes due to extenuating circumstances.
The Democratic delegation includes 29 party leaders and elected officials, 30 automatic delegates, 146 district level delegates, 49 at-large delegates and 19 alternates.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
JimboXYZ says
Same playbook that has been going on since 2020. Same names, same “elites/essentials” from 2020 => present. Playing musial chairs with the DNC nominee. This will be the 1st POTUS that as a freshman in the Senate that dropped out of a party’s primary, that became a VPOTUS, that never won the party’s primary thru a traditional election process. There’s a threat to democracy, running this game to eliminate the election process. If wars, inflation & border crisis for 3.5+ years is what Harris stands for, we see her record, thru Biden’s record. I will say D’s are unified in their gaming & gamesmanship, that somehow isn’t a threat to Democracy. And should Kamala Harris be elected, she would be free to pardon Hunter Biden for any drug addict-gun felonies & tax evasion felony charges that he would face in the future. Well played by the DNC.
Pelosi’s name resurfaces and generally her/House of Reps 25th amendment legislation thing back in October 2020. She’s a slippery old manipulative evil brand of witch. Biden may be removed before finishing out his term. Interesting, unfit for the election run, but fit to serve out the remainder of his term. Almost sounds like the equivalent of what the legal terms should be for an abortion,m only applied to remaining as POTUS.
https://rollcall.com/2020/10/09/why-is-pelosi-suddenly-talking-about-the-25th-amendment/
Lee says
It’s embarrassing for Palm Coast to have a representative (Paul Renner) say that President Biden should resign if he is too feeble to run for President. Running for President and governing a country is of course two different things. Maybe Renner just can’t wait for a Harris presidency. January 20 will get here soon enough and then we will have eight years.
joe says
Trump’s worst nightmare – a smart, aggressive, intelligent black woman – a prosecutor who is 20 years younger, and well able to puncture his wall of bullshit….
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
How would you know? Florida democrats were denied a democratic primary.
Atwp says
Felt bad when Biden dropped out of the race. Was that a good decision, time will tell. After Biden got out of the race the money flood gate is opening, which is good. At least for now the Party is becoming unified. How long the money continue to flow and the unity continues is any bodies guess. What will remain is Donald Trump is the oldest candidate. Karma is very sweet. Didn’t he say Obama got us into WW Two?
FlaPharmTech says
Flagler Dems! Florida Dems! Shout it out to Kamala Harris, our next PRESIDENT! This is imperative.
Jackson says
The majority of Americans are exhausted from Trump and his acolytes incessant hate and fear mongering.
Come November, this majority will make Trump and those acolytes irrelevant, again.
VOTE!!