Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Florida will be campaign central next week, as the race to Election Day approaches the final stretch.
The Hillary Clinton campaign announced Friday that President Barack Obama will travel to South Florida next Thursday to campaign for Clinton. The president was scheduled to campaign in Miami earlier this month, but had to postpone his trip because of Hurricane Matthew.
According to the Clinton campaign, Obama will urge Floridians to take advantage of in-person early voting, which begins Monday, Oct. 24.
State elections records show nearly 2.6 million vote-by-mail ballots have been requested ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Records show 310,760 ballots have already been returned. Registered Republicans have returned 130,758 ballots, while registered Democrats have returned 124,773 ballots.
Obama won’t be the only Clinton surrogate stumping through Florida. Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, is scheduled to campaign in South Florida over the weekend.
According to the Clinton campaign, Kaine will attend a Florida Democrats Block Party to celebrate the opening of the Liberty City organizing office Saturday. The event will be held in the parking lot of the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center at Miami-Dade College North Campus. Doors open at 2:45 p.m., and Kaine is expected to speak around 5:15 p.m.
Kaine is also expected to campaign in Broward County over the weekend.
Anne Holton, Kaine’s wife and the former Virginia education secretary, will head to North Florida next week, where she’ll rally party faithful at house parties and canvassing events.
Kaine and Holton’s events are tied to the Oct. 18 voter registration deadline. Earlier this week, a federal judge ordered the state to extend the deadline by one week because of Hurricane Matthew.
According to Real Clear Politics, a polling aggregation website, Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 3.2 points in Florida.
As of Friday, Trump had no events scheduled for next week in Florida. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, is scheduled to give one of the keynote addresses Saturday during the Republican Party of Florida’s annual Victory Dinner.
