Democratic donors rolled their eyes at a recent meeting when the Biden campaign team included GOP-trending Florida as a state that could help reelect the president next year, report says
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
- The Biden reelection campaign sees Florida as a potential state on their expansion map, per WaPo.
- But donors remain skeptical of Florida being a part of Biden's reelection calculus, per the paper.
- According to WaPo, there were "deep eye-rolls" among donors when Florida was brought up during a presentation.
For deep-pocketed Democratic donors, it used to be all about Florida.
Florida, Florida, Florida.
But that conventional wisdom has shifted dramatically in recent years.
As the onetime swing state has taken on an increasingly red tilt — backing Donald Trump for president in both 2016 and 2020, fueling the political ascent of Gov. Ron DeSantis, and electing Republicans up-and-down the ballot in 2022 — donors want to see the party consistently compete in more favorable states like Arizona and North Carolina.
Still, that's not stopping President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign staff from trying to win the state next year, as they see the Sunshine State as one of many pieces of an electoral calculus that could get them to 270 — the requisite number of Electoral College votes needed to win the election.
With 30 electoral votes, Florida's appeal as a presidential juggernaut can't be ignored.
But many of the party's biggest donors remain skeptical of a push to win the state next year, according to The Washington Post.
At a Biden campaign National Finance Committee meeting in Chicago earlier this month, donors were privately briefed on the paths that top officials were mapping out to keep the president in the Oval Office for a second term.
Per The Post, campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks spoke of their vision for the president's reelection drive, which included holding the battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
And they also spoke of states that they sought to win again, including Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada, while also mentioning their desire to win North Carolina — which Biden narrowly lost in 2020.
The attendees were all onboard with the strategy until Florida was shown during the slide presentation, according to two individuals present at the meeting who spoke with The Post.
"Everybody who was in the audience was doing deep eye-rolls over Florida being on the expansion map," one of the individuals told the newspaper.
Florida has multiple media markets, an expensive proposition for any campaign, and many Democratic officials will likely want the campaign to help boost vulnerable candidates in lieu of running in a state that could be a money sink.
Simply put, Florida is a tough sell for most Democrats these days.
But the Biden campaign seemingly isn't giving up hope, despite the odds.
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