Florida GOP lauds Donald Trump reelection efforts as presidential race intensifies

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The Republican Party of Florida is lauding its efforts to reelect President Donald Trump, a leader they herald as one of its own.

“President Trump is a Floridian,” said RPOF Chair Joe Gruters referring to Trump’s fairly new Florida residency status. “Florida loves him and we will definitely deliver.”

Speaking during a press call Thursday ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden’s Tampa rally, Gruters and GOP spokesman Rick Gorka heaped praise for both Trump and the state party’s devotion to delivering him a second term.

“Our team never left the state,” Gorka said, highlighting increases in volunteer participation over 2016 when Trump won Florida.

Since then, he said, the number of “on the ground” volunteers has doubled. That’s despite, or perhaps because of, ongoing restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic that make traditional campaigning difficult.

Campaigns, including Trump’s, have been forced to keep efforts to voter phone calls and digital events.

The restrictions are also leaving Floridians and Americans nationwide largely confined to their homes, something Gorka said makes for a receptive audience.

“People in the past they’ve kind of almost cringed when they have to make these phone calls, but now you kind of have a captive audience,” Gorka said.

The result has been increased volunteer engagement and an influx of voter engagement, he said.

While the call was tame compared to Trump’s token campaign rallies, which he has been holding for 2020 ever since he first took office, Republican leaders didn’t miss the opportunity to bash Trump’s likely opponent, evoking Trump’s nickname rhetoric by calling Biden “Sleepy Joe.”

Gorka opened his remarks to the media with an immediate dig on the Biden campaign, blasting them for hosting a virtual roundtable with elected leaders in Jacksonville in which most of the media was shut out.

Considering Biden’s lack of traction in the media, Gorka argued, it was “an interesting tactic to say the least.”

“I know he has a hard time even remembering where he is on some days,” Gruters added, implying the media shut-out was done to avoid going off script.

The call also praised Republican get out the vote efforts, without going into specifics, claiming the party was reaching non-Republican voters who support Trump despite party affiliation or lack thereof.

Gruters said the state party spent more than $1 million on voter registration efforts and made 1.1 million contacts with voters.

“I’m very happy with the results that we’ve had,” Gruters said.