Joe Biden schedules first in-person visit to Florida during General Election campaign

Image via AP.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will visit Florida next Tuesday, days after his running mate touches down in the Sunshine State.

Biden’s campaign announced next week’s planned visit on Wednesday afternoon. So far, no further details have been released regarding the time or precise city Biden will visit.

The planned visit comes as some polls have shown a tight race between Biden and President Donald Trump in Florida. An NBC News/Marist poll showed the two tied with 48% of the vote. A separate Miami Herald survey had Biden under-performing 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Miami-Dade, which is Florida’s most populous county.

Biden got some better news Wednesday, when a St. Pete Polls survey showed him earning 50% support compared to 47% for Trump. That poll was commissioned by Florida Politics and AARP Florida.

Florida and its 29 electoral votes are typically highly contested during presidential election years. President Trump visited Jupiter earlier this week where he announced an executive order extending the moratorium on drilling off Florida’s coasts for 10 more years.

Biden’s vice presidential selection, Kamala Harris, will head to Miami Thursday alongside her husband, Doug Emhoff. In late August, Emhoff joined several Democratic Jewish lawmakers for a virtual meeting discussing the ticket’s appeal to the Jewish community.

Both candidates are likely to continue circling back to Florida. FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast currently gives Biden a 6 in 10 chance of winning Florida.