Atlanta, Georgia Local News
Democrats say Florida is in play in 2024 due to Conservatives’ anti-abortion push
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The Biden-Harris Campaign hosted a call after the Florida Supreme Court allowed the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect. In a separate ruling, the state’s highest bench allowed the constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot in November’s elections. It means voters will have a chance to undo those restrictions in seven months. Moreover, Democrats believe Florida is now in play. However, the campaign says there are multiple paths to an electoral college win in November.
“We definitely see Florida in play, and unlike Donald Trump, we have multiple pathways to 270 that we’ve been able to keep open,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the campaign manager for the Biden-Harris reelection team, on a Zoom conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, U.S. Congresswoman Nikema Williams, D-Georgia, and Florida State House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell participated in the call along with Chavez-Rodriguez.
“This new, extreme abortion ban — one that Donald Trump personally paved the way for — will now amount to a ban for the entire Southeast,” said Chavez-Rodriguez. “Women in need of reproductive care throughout the region now face a choice between putting their lives at risk or traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to get care.”
Trump has characterized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s six-week abortion ban as “terrible thing and a terrible mistake” but, refused to describe what portions are terrible. However, DeSantis was unable to pin down Trump’s stances during the primary season. But, one thing is clear: conservatives will not double down on the topic of abortion.
“President Trump supports preserving life but has also made clear that he supports states’ rights because he supports the voters’ right to make decisions for themselves,” said Brian Hughes, senior adviser to the Trump campaign. “Where President Trump thinks voters should have the last word, Biden and many Democrats want to allow abortion up until the moment of birth and force taxpayers to pay for it.”
The tenor right now is the Republicans will take on immigration and the economy. According to the average of polls by the FiveThirtyEight, President Biden trails Trump by seven points. Florida has not been a factor in Presidential elections since 2000. Trump won Florida in 2020 with 51.2% of the vote. In 2022, DeSantis won the governor’s race in a landslide, with 59.4% of the vote.
“We are seeing what Trump’s agenda looks like here in Florida: extremist politicians inserting themselves into women’s health care, threatening doctors with prison time, and endangering women’s health and lives. This is a deeply personal decision that belongs only between a woman and her doctor. Now, that’s not just my opinion – that is the opinion shared by the majority of Americans and Floridians,” said Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell. “As President Biden said, Donald Trump and MAGA extremists have deeply underestimated the power of women. We’ve seen them pay for it already at the ballot box. Across the country voters have resoundingly rejected their extremism. Americans want more freedom, not less.”
The Biden campaign is focusing on Florida because the state is the proverbial thermometer for Conservatives’s culture wars. For example, Florida has a law that bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity and prohibits certain books which are centered around race and gender from libraries.
But the traditional red meat issue of abortion has been a successful buoy for Democrats since Dobbs. Since July 2022, voters in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont have affirmed the right to an abortion and overall reproductive care.
The ham-handed way southern states have enacted their “heartbeat bills” and “right to life” campaigns have opened the door for other issues to come to the fore. On February 16th, the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos created through IVF should be considered children, according to the application of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker stated in a sacrosanct fashion in the decision, “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
With respect to Florida, if President Biden proves to be competitive in the Sunshine State, Trump would be forced to spend money there and not a swing state… like Georgia.
“There is only one person truly to blame here and that is Donald Trump. Trump himself has said that without him there would be no bans – like the ones in Georgia and Florida – that are hurting women and threatening doctors. It is Donald Trump who said there should be ‘punishment’ for women who have an abortion. But here’s what should scare everybody even more: Donald Trump has no plans to stop and plans to do even more. It’s not enough for Donald Trump that millions of Americans live under an abortion ban in effect. If Trump returns to the White House, things will only get worse as he and MAGA Republicans work toward their ultimate goal: banning abortion in all 50 states – even in states where it currently is legal,” said Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams. “Between now and November, I’m going to organize and fight like hell to reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris – the only candidates we can trust to fight for our fundamental rights. Time and time again, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans have underestimated the anger they’ve unleashed.”
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