President Joe Biden suggested on Nov. 1 that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be another version of former President Donald Trump, as Biden stumped for the state’s Democrat gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist who is facing an increasing deficit in the polls days before the election day.
“This guy doesn’t fit any of the categories I talked about. The way he deals, the way he denies,” Biden said, potentially referring to earlier remarks about decency and honor.
With less than a week before polls close in the midterm elections, Democrat candidates in the Sunshine State are now trailing Republican opponents in both the Senate and the gubernatorial races.
“The rest of the world is looking at us, Charlie. They’re looking at us,” Biden said on Tuesday, calling over the former congressman and Florida governor. “It is really important that a state the size of Florida … comes down on the right side of history.”
Biden later capped his day in the state with a rally at Florida Memorial University, a historically black university, for the state’s Democratic candidates, including Crist and Rep. Val Demings, who’s running against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
During his evening remarks, Biden once again singled out DeSantis, as he noted that the nearby Port of Miami recently received a $16 million federal grant due to one of his biggest legislative victories: the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation.
“I’m sure your governor will take credit for it somewhere along the line,” Biden said.
At a Medicare event in Hallandale Beach earlier that day, Biden has also seized on Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s February proposal to sunset all federal legislation after five years, which the president says would require Congress to reauthorize Medicare and Social Security, as emblematic of what he’s termed the “ultra-MAGA” agenda Democrats are running against.
Democrats are now particularly concerned about the trend in Miami-Dade County, home to 1.5 million Hispanics of voting age. It has been a Democratic stronghold for the past 20 years, but the GOP made significant gains in the past presidential election. Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, are predicting the region will turn red on Nov. 8.
Should Democrats lose Miami-Dade, it could virtually eliminate their path to victory in statewide Florida contests, including presidential elections, moving forward.
Biden, who often ends his speech by asking “God to protect our troops,” offered a salty addendum with his remarks in Hallandale Beach—“God, give some of our Republican friends some enlightenment,” the president said.
Florida hasn’t voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since former President Barack Obama in 2012. Biden lost the state again in 2020.
DeSantis, 44, has neither confirmed nor ruled out a potential presidential bid in two years, saying that his focus is on the upcoming re-election.
Biden will campaign in New Mexico on Thursday, California on Friday, and Pennsylvania on Saturday.
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