Vance’s red-state swing hits Florida as polls tighten in Sunshine State

Por Kimberly Leonard — POLITICO – TOP Stories

LAKELAND, Florida — Vice President JD Vance rallied the MAGA base in Central Florida on Thursday, urging them to turn out for Republicans as polling suggests the state’s races for governor, Senate and redrawn House districts could be tighter than expected.

“It seems very obvious that Florida is MAGA country,” said Vance, who received raucous applause from the GOP-friendly audience when he walked onstage under a banner that read “Defend our Future.”

The GOP is still in a stronger position than Democrats in Florida. Republicans have a 1.5 million voter registration advantage over Democrats, in addition to far higher fundraising totals. On top of that, President Donald Trump calls Florida home and won the state three times by increasing margins.

Yet Democrats have overperformed in recent special elections in Florida and made gains with independent and even Republican voters. Florida is facing many of the same political headwinds as the rest of the U.S., including inflation and ongoing frustrations with gas prices due to the war in Iran — as well as backlash over mass deportations from members of its large immigrant population.

Vance, who is one of the White House’s top midterm surrogates and has embarked on a red-state swing, pressed the base assembled at an aircraft hangar and events venue to turn out in November to “send a message to the far-left radicals.” He accused Democrats of wanting to make Florida “less free, less safe and more poor.” He repeatedly referred to the state as “the free state of Florida,” a slogan popularized by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Vance talked up the GOP candidate for governor, Rep. Byron Donalds, as well as GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, who DeSantis appointed and has been running a cautious campaign to keep her seat. The duo, Vance said, “want the same things that President Trump and I want” regarding safety, healthy food and “happy families.”

He took aim at Moody’s progressive Democratic rival, state Rep. Angie Nixon, saying it was “almost too easy to make fun of her.” “When Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist,” he said, “I think the right response is to say, ‘Then get the hell out of here. You don’t belong in America.’”

Nixon, who notched an upset primary victory on Aug. 18, responded quickly on social media to condemn the comments. She joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June but has done extensive interviews sharing where she breaks with the DSA platform and has said she doesn’t use political labels. “The most ordinary man imaginable came to my home state to tell me to ‘get out of America’ while they enjoyed the comfort of buildings my ancestors built,” she wrote Thursday, arguing that wanting to ensure lower costs “isn’t un-American.”

Moody had attacked Nixon earlier in the day when speaking to the crowd, nicknaming her “Socialist Angie” and highlighting her defense of drag shows.

“We are the firewall for freedom right here in Florida,” Moody said. “We are going to speak out, so this can’t happen anywhere else in the nation. This will be a race that shuts down forever the roots of socialism in this country.”

Moody will be up for election again in 2028 if she wins in November; the election she faces this year is a special election due to the DeSantis appointment.

Vance also criticized Donalds’ Democratic rival for governor, David Jolly, calling him a “washed-up loser” who “flips and flops with the wind.”

“As reasonable and rational and freedom loving as this state is,” Vance said, “you’ve got some real choice Democrats running in the state of Florida.”Though some Republican candidates have begun distancing themselves from Trump across the U.S. — and even in Florida — the vice president and Donalds both leaned into the president’s support and policies. Vance argued life was worse under former President Joe Biden and praised the GOP law that temporarily suspended taxes on Social Security and tips. He also raised the Trump administration’s efforts to lower drug prices, drops in fentanyl-related overdose deaths and anti-fraud measures.

Donalds praised DeSantis and Trump, saying that he traveled with the president as a surrogate during the 2024 election. He blamed Democrats under Biden for “destroying our country” with inflation and an immigration policy he described as “open border.”

The crowd included several top Florida Republicans facing reelection, underscoring the importance of the president’s base. Sitting among rallygoers were GOP Reps. Laurel Lee and Gus Bilirakis; Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson; Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia; and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. They were joined by Ryan Elijah, a former Orlando news anchor who unseated Rep. Cory Mills in the GOP primary, as well as GOP Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Scott Franklin, among others.

Two hecklers who interrupted Vance’s speech were quickly removed from the room and booed by Trump supporters in the crowd. Donalds also made extensive comments about affordability struggles, conceding Florida has been “successful but it’s gotten expensive,” and argued the “solution is commonsense conservatism.” Vance backed him up onstage, bringing up a conversation he had with Donalds about how he would work to reduce the cost of property insurance. Florida has among the highest costs in the nation, and it has become a major topic in the governor’s race with polling showing it tops Floridians’ concerns.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories