Trump fears Florida wipeout

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The White House is planning a political rescue mission in Florida, fearing a wipeout in a key swing state next month that could damage President Donald Trump’s reelection hopes.

Trump is expected to visit the state at least twice, according to two people familiar with the plans. Visits from several Cabinet members are likely, as well. Presidential text messages are being sent to Floridians who still haven’t cast their absentee ballots. And discussions are underway about blanketing the state with robocalls from Trump.

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway were in the state in support of gubernatorial hopeful Ron DeSantis and Senate candidate Rick Scott, both of whom are close to Trump. Later in the day, the president raised money for Republican House candidate Ross Spano, who's facing an unexpectedly tough challenge in what's been a reliably red district.

Behind the scenes, Trump aides have been in contact with top Florida Republicans on a near daily basis, and people close to the president concede that they are worried.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/26/trump-florida-senate-2018-senate-governor-941802

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Florida -- the state of broken dreams

Steve Schale on the night the lights went out on Hillary Clinton in Florida

MITCH PERRY
May 11, 2017, 6:00 pm

On Election Night 2016, at approximately 7:45 p.m., Steve Schale was at an Orlando brewpub. ... The Democratic strategist opened his laptop to review his state’s election returns.

“It’s in real bad shape,” Schale told Hillary Clinton pollster John Anzalone and campaign consultant Jim Margolis in a phone call. ... “What the f**k are you talking about,” Anzalone asked disbelieving, according to “Shattered,” a riveting look behind the scenes of the Clinton campaign. ... Shattered is now the No. 1 non-fiction book on the L.A. Times best-seller list, and sits at No. 2 on The New York Times best-seller list.

“Trump’s numbers weren’t just big, they were unreal,” say co-authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. ... They write:

“In rural Polk County, smack-dab in the center of the state, Hillary would collect 3,000 more votes than Obama did in 2012 — but Trump would add more than 25,000 to Mitt Romney’s total. In Pasco County, a swath of suburbs north of Tampa-St. Petersburg.

“Trump outran Romney by 30,000 votes. Pasco was one of the counties Schale was paying special attention to because the Tampa area tended to attract retirees from the Rust Belt — folks whose political leanings reflected those of hometowns in the industrial Midwest.

“In particular, Schale could tell, heavily white areas were coming in hard for Trump.”
....

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served five years as political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. Mitch also was assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley and is a San Francisco native who has lived in Tampa since 2000. Mitch can be reached at [e-mail].

[apnu]

5. Trump tapped into a voting block that the GOP had been ignoring for a long time

The racist crackers. Its his core block and remains so to this day. He knows it and that's why Trump can't condemn neo-nazis and Klansmen like normal fucking human beings.

[joshcryer]

8. Exactly.

The hardcore racists didn't care in past elections, indeed, Obama's surge made them apathetic. But Trump appealed to their deepest fears and motivated them hard.

[duforsure]

2. Why would anyone in Florida or any state vote for white nationalists

Over Democrats. Seniors are running from them , women are running from them , minorities are running from them , and men who back women are running from them now, so it isn't a surprise at all . Its just starting too , and will get a lot larger than they think. People don't like anything they're doing , they don't like all their lying either. The White nationalist party in Congress will be voted out of office in huge numbers, if not taken out in handcuffs first.

[lagomorph777]

3. I hope Trump spends all his time in Florida - he'll close the deal for Gillum, Nelson, et al.

[OriginalGeek]

4. If that works

I'll gladly suffer the fool.

[NOMOGOP]

6. If Florida voters

pass felon voting rights restoration I would guess Florida not so competitive in the future. It is, however, one of the biggest election fraud states so nothing can be counted on.

[Harker]

7. I'm still hopeful that Trumpsky won't be in a position

to be eligible for being re-elected.

[quaker bill]

9. They should be worried

This is the 4th consecutive year of harmful algae blooms and massive fish kills. The first two were in the Indian River Lagoon and the last two have been further south in the Loxahatchee and Caloosahatchee estuaries, accompanied with red tide blooms up the west and now the east coast. Both (R) candidates fought against environmental protection every step of the way.

I know fish don't vote, but the people affected by the toxins and stench do. The small businesses damaged by fleeing tourists are owned by people who do. Heck even rednecks and grumpy old white guys like to go fishing.

Add to this if you will a lot of angry women wanting to even things up for 2016, some seniors who heard McConnell wanting to cut SS and Medicare to deal with the deficit, and a blow out is the likely result.

They are running unlikable candidates in a year that would have been tough for them on a good day. I hope they waste plenty of resources here. It is not going to fix it