The rules are set for the national nomination process for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. All signs point to that nominee being Vice President Kamala Harris, which Florida Democrats hope will be a political boon for blue voters in the Sunshine State.
The rules, set on Thursday, require a candidate seeking the party nomination to have 50 Democratic delegates from six states officially pledge to support them via an e-signature by July 30th at 6 p.m. to qualify. Then, delegates have until August 7th to cast their votes for one of the qualified candidates.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told WFSU the parties’ nominee will almost certainly be Harris.
“Based on the fact that all of the state delegations, for the most part, have all consolidated very quickly and pledged their support for the vice president. Including Florida. We had over 94% and I think at this point it's close to 96% of our delegation, which consists about 254 votes, one of the fourth largest delegation, and certainly the largest swing state delegation, and within a very short period of time, she received the pledges of the delegations across the country,” she said.
Fried said the emergence of Harris to lead the ticket has reinvigorated Democrats across Florida, with the party receiving 7,000 volunteers since Biden stepped down and Harris stepped up.
“When you have more people on the doors, when you have more people making phone calls, turnout increases exponentially. And that helps, of course, with the down ballot on school board races that are on this August primary ballot, as well as getting Daniella Levine Cava, the Mayor of Miami-Dade, up and over the finish line on hopefully the first ballot. And then we go on to November,” she said.
Even Republicans have remarked the change in who’s likely topping the ticket has helped Democrats. Governor Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Wednesday that Republicans would have preferred Biden stayed in the race because of widespread questions about his health.
“I think, before he dropped out it was like 85% of the public thought that he was not equipped to serve four more years as president, I mean I don’t see how you can win an election if that’s the case,” he said.
Democratic Political Consultant Kevin Cate said Florida was not in play for Democrats with Biden as a candidate. Now, he doesn’t think anything is out of reach.
“I think everybody’s thrilled. You see massive Democratic enthusiasm, whether it’s donations, volunteer sign ups or just word of mouth, and that has a tremendous impact, not only at the top of the ticket, but down ballot, where some of these races are decided by a handful of votes,” he said.
However, Republicans still have advantages in Florida. They are nearing a one million voter lead over Democrats in voter registration in the sunshine state.
Sean Foreman, a political science professor at Barry University, believes the change may help select down ballot races due to higher Democrat enthusiasm, but doesn’t expect Harris to win over enough independents to make the whole state competitive.
“It helps to solidify Democrats and give them some hope in down ballot races, but I don't think it gives them the big shot in the arm to change what we're expecting to happen in Florida, and that is for Republicans to win most of the key races,” he said.
A poll from the Telegraph has former President Donald Trump up 8 points in Florida, but few polls have yet been conducted between the two candidates, and more recent national polls have the two virtually tied at the national level.