As potential Florida VP choice looms, Donald Trump slates Doral rally

Image via AP.

Former President Donald Trump will rally supporters in South Florida next week in one of his final campaign appearances before this month’s Republican National Convention.

At that Tuesday night event in Doral, the presumptive GOP nominee will deliver what his campaign’s advisory sells as a Florida-centric message.

“Florida is a place near and dear to President Trump’s heart as his home state. President Trump loves Florida and its people,” the campaign says.

The advisory suggests that Trump will blame President Joe Biden for the cost of living and security issues in the state. Biden’s campaign is in existential crisis after the Democrat’s disastrous debate last week.

“Florida families are being smothered by high inflation on everyday goods,” the campaign claims. “Biden’s weak immigration policies have turned Florida into a border state.”

The Biden camp, as expected, is setting up a stark contrast of its own with the former President, alleging that Trump will “continue to parade his extremist agenda to ban reproductive health care and cut Social Security, hurting countless Floridians” and claiming “Biden is standing up for Floridians and our reproductive freedoms, protecting seniors’ retirement benefits and health care access, and keeping our democracy safe — and that’s why he’ll win re-election this fall.”

Whether Biden wins re-election this fall or even survives as the nominee is an open question, given rampant speculation that VP Kamala Harris or others may replace him on the ticket. Harris would be the first Black woman nominated to top a major party’s presidential ticket. If nominated to the top job, she would also have access to $240 million cash on hand already controlled by the Biden-Harris campaign.

However, while questions about what happens with the Democratic ticket are necessarily open at this point, one key Biden adviser says the President can’t win the Sunshine State.

During an interview last month with Puck News, Biden re-election Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, pointedly refused to name Florida among the states where the President thinks he can compete.

“No,” she said when asked directly by John Heilemann as he listed off states, wondering whether the campaign was treating them as battlegrounds.

Polling of the race has consistently shown Trump out in front, poised to carry the state for his third straight Presidential Election, but there has been some variance in numbers.

Ryan Tyson’s The Tyson Group poll, taken earlier this month, showed that 46% of likely voters back Trump, suitable for a 10-point lead over Biden. However, a contemporaneous Fox News survey showed that Trump had only a 4-point lead.

Meanwhile, as far as people on the outside know, at least two Florida men are still in the mix for the chance to be Trump’s running mate.

However, polls suggest that a third Sunshine State Republican, who is not under consideration, would be the stronger choice.

The Economist/YouGov poll of 1,608 adults, conducted between June 30 and July 2, shows Florida’s Governor would be the most “acceptable” vice presidential choice with Trumpers and Republicans among a list of potential contenders from Florida and beyond. That survey follows up on previous polling that led to the same conclusion.

DeSantis leads all names as an acceptable option for 49% of those who say they intend to vote for Trump, and no one else is even close. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s 40% is good for second place, while Rubio’s 35% is fourth, behind Ben Carson.

The same dynamic plays out among Republican voters, though the numbers are slightly lower, suggesting some Never-Trumpers are still in play. DeSantis is at 44% and in first place, with Rubio at 30%.

Donalds, a Congressman from South Florida, is far behind his Sunshine State peers. Only 18% of Trump voters and 13% of Republicans rate him as a plausible running mate for the former President.

DeSantis has said he’s not interested in the gig.

“Would you take it if it were offered to you? I don’t think I would be good at it, and I think I’m probably, you know, more valuable doing other things,” he said during an Outkick interview last year, noting that “doing No. 2” “doesn’t appeal” to him.

Meanwhile, Rubio and Donalds have put in work with questionably quotable results.

Florida’s Senior Senator touted as having appeal to Hispanic voters, raised eyebrows during a Univision interview when he defended as figurative language Trump’s nativist contention that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” in America.

Donalds likewise made news in his efforts at Trump surrogacy.

“‘You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,’ he said during an attempt to appeal to Black voters in Pennsylvania.