Once the honeymoon is over, how will Florida Democrats sell Kamala 2.0 to voters? | Opinion

Are Florida Democrats delusional, or are they onto something surprising: the possibility that, in November, the state’s presidential election results will be close and could even give them an upset victory?

The Democrats’ re-invigorated efforts to win Florida’s 30 electoral votes are up against gale-force headwinds. Among their challenges: As of June 30, the GOP had an advantage in registered voters of almost 1 million Florida voters.

On the other hand, historically, a registration edge hasn’t always guaranteed a victory. Consider 1984, when the Democrats had a huge 3.3 million-to-1.8 million advantage, but Republican Ronald Reagan trounced Democrat Walter Mondale. So much for party loyalty.

Moreover, there’s now another imponderable in Florida’s political landscape: the 3.5 million registered voters with no party affiliation. Are they erstwhile Democrats who didn’t like the party’s lurch to the left? Or do they include non-MAGA Republicans opposed to Donald Trump’s takeover of their former political home?

At any rate, Joe Biden’s withdrawal and the carefully scripted honeymoon phase of presumptive nominee Kamala Harris’ candidacy have provided the Democrats with a needed dose of grassroots enthusiasm. That was evident when 500 golf carts showed up for a Harris rally at The Villages, the sprawling Central Florida retirement community that Trump had carried in a landslide twice. A stunt? Sure, but it got media attention.

Florida Democrats are also hopeful that the presence on the November ballot of constitutional amendments protecting abortion rights and legalizing recreational marijuana will draw more women and younger voters to the polls.

The newfound enthusiasm also led to a nationwide fundraising surge, with $200 million in campaign contributions collected during Harris’ first week on the campaign trail. Florida Democrats are pleading with the Harris campaign to invest more in this state, which the national party had previously deemed in the bag for Trump.

Will they give it a try? Possibly. As reported in The Hill, “Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison argued Sunday that the enthusiasm for Vice President Harris’s campaign has made Florida and North Carolina competitive for the November election.”

“We have over 1100 staff across the country in our battleground states…We are also supporting, through our red state program, states that are not battlegrounds, but we believe we can be competitive,” Harrison said.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, honeymoons typically come to an end — and so will Kamala Harris’. Despite the mainstream media’s efforts to scrub her record of embarrassing details, such as her inaction in her role at the Southern Border, she has a long paper trail dating back to her decisions as a prosecutor in San Francisco.

Moreover, her voting record in the U.S. Senate was more “progressive” than that of the avowed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. That’s unlikely to be a selling point in Florida, a state that arguably leans right of center on the political spectrum.

Then again, Harris is up against Trump, a candidate whose campaign has been subjected to various acts of sabotage — and not just by the young would-be assassin who managed to outmaneuver the Secret Service and FBI. Some would argue that Trump’s running mate, Ohio’s U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, is among those undermining the former president’s support, especially among “childless cat ladies.”

However, it turns out that the main saboteur of the Trump campaign is a man named Donald J. Trump, whose off-the-cuff rants at campaign rallies have swing voters scratching their heads in confusion.

What did Trump mean, for instance, when he told a group of evangelical Christians that if they’d vote for him in November, they wouldn’t ever have to vote again? Inquiring minds want to know.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Herald’s conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point. It’s weekly, and it’s free. To subscribe, go to miamiherald.com/righttothepoint.