Administration

Biden to rally with Democrats in Florida this month

President Biden addresses a reception during the Democratic National Committee summer meeting at the Gaylord National in National Harbor, Md., on Thursday, September 8, 2022.

President Biden will travel to Florida later this month to rally with Democrats, with leading Senate and gubernatorial races on the ballot there in November.

Biden will travel to Orlando on Sept. 27, the White House announced Friday. He will attend a Democratic National Committee rally while there, the latest instance of Biden addressing a gathering of Democrats ahead of the midterms.

It will mark Biden’s second trip to the state as president. He previously visited to tour the site of the Surfside Condo collapse.

Biden has held recent events in Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to boost Democrats, though not every member of the party on the ticket in November has opted to appear alongside him.

In Florida, where Biden lost in 2020 by nearly 400,000 votes in part due to an erosion of support among Hispanic voters, Democrats are hoping to win up and down the ticket.

Rep. Val Demings (D) is running against Sen. Marco Rubio (R), while former Rep. Charlie Crist (D), the onetime governor of the state, is running against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Polls show Republicans ahead in both races, but Democrats believe that momentum from the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, as well as DeSantis’s growing and controversial national profile, could help them pull an upset.

DeSantis made headlines in recent days by flying a group of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, which the White House decried as a “cruel” political stunt.