President Joe Biden’s campaign is scrambling after campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon stated that she did not consider Florida a battleground state for the Democrat incumbent, as the campaign’s battleground state director is now saying that the Sunshine State is “absolutely in play.”
O’Malley Dillon made waves after admitting on a podcast that the Biden campaign has essentially given up on Florida and its 30 electoral votes come November.
When asked if she believed Florida was a legitimate battleground state, she said it was not.
The Biden campaign has since scrambled, telling the Orlando Sentinel that it has certainly not written off Florida.
The battleground states director for Biden, Dan Kanninen, told the newspaper, “Florida is absolutely in play.”
“We’ll have a presence in all the major markets in Florida,” he continued. “Unlike [former President Donald] Trump, who is not investing in this state, we have a strong team of leaders on the ground who are building organizing teams.”
According to the outlet, the Biden campaign has “28 full-time staff, a political director and communications director and opened 13 offices in key cities across the state from Miami to Pensacola.”
Even Florida’s Democrat chairwoman Nikki Fried is confident that Biden can win in Florida, but Florida Republican chairman Evan Power has dismissed that belief wholly.
“Why does she keep doing this?” he asked of Fried, telling the Orlando Sentinel, “We’re going to win Florida, and we’re going to win it big.”
However, Democrats are still scrambling, seemingly banking on the abortion issue to swing Florida voters back to Democrats.
Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), reportedly said, “With a changing and diverse electorate and with Donald Trump’s overturning of Roe v Wade paving the way for a six-week abortion ban in Florida, Democrats inside and outside of the state know that there is a pathway to victory in Florida.”
“Floridians know Trump and [Gov. Ron] Desantis’ failures firsthand and Florida Republican MAGA extremism, and are ready to send Trump back to Mar-a-Lago for good in November,” Rahman added.
The numbers are not in their favor, however. Florida Republicans are dominating the scene in Florida, which swung red for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. For the first time in state history, Republicans overtook Democrats in terms of voter registration, and that advantage has continued to explode.