Sunday, May 21, 2023

Fwd: [Trang Ánh Nam] New comment on Jacksonville Mayor-elect Donna Deegan joins Jen Psaki to discuss her upset win over DeSantis-backed GOP candidate and the future of Florida politics.




Jane Wilde has left a new comment on your post "Jacksonville Mayor-elect Donna Deegan joins Jen Psaki to discuss her upset win over DeSantis-backed GOP candidate and the future of Florida politics":


Biden bets DeSantis' 'Florida blueprint' will help him flip the Sunshine State and win reelection

Ron DeSantis is going to run for president talking about his record in Florida. Joe Biden is too.

Biden advisers believe they can hold up what the GOP governor calls his "Florida blueprint" as a warning to the country about what would happen if DeSantis or any other Republican wins the White House in 2024 – a human embodiment, essentially, of Biden's argument that "MAGA extremism" goes beyond Donald Trump.

And along the way, they believe the Florida governor's record may give them a chance at the state's 30 electoral votes.

The Biden campaign has quietly started putting campaign cash and efforts into Florida – and will decide in the coming months whether to put more – as it gauges the president's chances of reversing the reddening of a state he lost by a wider-than-expected margin in 2020.

A dozen top Biden and Democratic officials, several of whom asked not speak by name in order to discuss internal plans, told CNN they're raring to dig in on DeSantis' championing of abortion restrictions, his ongoing fight with Disney stemming from the company's opposition to what critics have called the "Don't Say Gay" law, his lifting of concealed weapons permitting, his crackdown on unlawful immigration and his consistent railing over "woke" politics.

It's an insurance policy strategy for a campaign that has so far almost exclusively focused on Biden as the alternative to Trump, who continues to lead Republican primary polls and whom DeSantis has already spent months trying to knock out of the way.

And it comes as Biden advisers push back on ongoing criticism from Florida Democrats that they flubbed their chance last year to damage DeSantis early by not investing much energy or money against him as he ran for reelection, racking up a whopping 19-point victory and tens of millions in campaign funds, likely now headed to a supportive super PAC.

"They've realized the outcome of their negligence. [DeSantis] now has a lot of resources that he can use," said former Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who won a Miami-area House seat in the 2018 blue wave but lost it two years later as Trump carried the state. "You don't want to lose your democracy? You want to stop fascism? Then do something about his reelection. We could have stopped [DeSantis] in 2022. No one did anything."

One Biden adviser mused to CNN that while DeSantis may feel untouchable because of how right-wing Republicans have embraced his contrarian approach to navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, memories of that will have faded by next year. The adviser said DeSantis' most controversial positions went unexamined during his easy reelection win, and the governor himself is less experienced at being attacked.

Mucarsel-Powell said she was surprised but pleased that White House deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley Dillon brought up Florida at a recent strategy meeting she attended. O'Malley Dillon, who was Biden's 2020 general election campaign manager, has been cautiously raising the possibility of Biden competing for Florida in several briefings since the reelection campaign officially kicked off.

Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and member of the Biden campaign's advisory board of elected officials, said he's eager to tell the country the story of what he's seen under DeSantis' leadership.

"Freedom is not free in Florida. Businesses are not free in Florida. People are not free in Florida. No one is free in Florida. And it's evidence of the policies that have gone forth," the Democrat said.

On a national level, Jones said, "if you want to see that again, elect Ron DeSantis."

A DeSantis spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.

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Posted by Jane Wilde to Trang Ánh Nam at May 21, 2023, 10:01 PM

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