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Joe Biden will travel to Florida next week, for no other reason than to help the Democratic candidates in two elections that, a priori, that seems to be an uphill battle. Both Charlie Crist and Val Demings are watching Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio suspiciously from behind in the polls. However, one of them does not want to appear close to the president.
The current Commander-in-Chief will be campaigning in Florida to boost the Senate and gubernatorial candidates’ numbers. Crist has already announced that he will be present at the event, while Demings has pulled out completely.
The reasons for this decision are obvious. Ron DeSantis trails Crist on average by nearly 5% in the polls and has $120 million in his campaign account, more than any other candidate for a statewide election in the entire country.
Therefore, a campaign rally with Joe Biden would not greatly affect his performance in November. As for Val Demings, while she is also behind in the polls, her performance is a little better than Crist.
Steve Vancore, a Democratic pollster in Florida, spoke with NBC and assured that “Val Demings doesn’t need the money and attention that Charlie Crist does. So, therefore, she could look at polling and say, ‘I need to get crossover voters, and Joe Biden’s underwater.’”
In a recent poll, Suffolk pollster David Paleologos found Demings trailing Rubio by 4 percentage points, while the former governor trails DeSantis by 7 points, with a margin of error for both of just over 4 percentage points.
“The calculation for Crist is ‘I’m down 7 points; I have to win an inside straight here in this poker game,’ and maybe if Biden’s numbers continue to come up — and they are rising — it will be a wise move at this snapshot at time. But it’s a risk he needs to take to get whatever media attention he gets,” Paleologos said.
In turn, he found that 40% of Florida voters have favorable views of the president, compared to 54% who had unfavorable views. However, the key data is the undecided. Among this group, only 16% had a positive assessment of Biden, while 58% disapproved.
Therefore, unlike Crist, Demings, for now, does not seem to want his image to be associated with that of President Biden, especially taking into account the decisions of the federal government to get closer to the tyrannies of Venezuela and Cuba.
Joaquín Núñez es licenciado en comunicación periodística por la Universidad Católica Argentina. Se especializa en el escenario internacional y en la política nacional norteamericana. Confeso hincha de Racing Club de Avellaneda. Contacto: [email protected] // Joaquín Núñez has a degree in journalistic communication from the Universidad Católica Argentina. He specializes in the international scene and national American politics. Confessed fan of Racing Club of Avellaneda. Contact: [email protected]