Joe Biden to visit South Florida one week before Election Day to raise money for Crist

In what would be his first political event in the state since taking office, President Joe Biden will stump for Charlie Crist in South Florida one week before Election Day as Crist vies to unseat Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Crist’s campaign told the Miami Herald the two will headline a private fundraiser on Nov. 1, after Crist’s fundraising “took a dip due to Hurricane Ian.”

“President Biden understands what is on the ballot this November,” Crist said in a statement. “Whether it’s protecting a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own body or helping our state rebuild and prepare for the next storm, the stakes could not be higher for Florida and we are grateful for his support.”

The private event — which the White House announced will be in Fort Lauderdale — would mark Biden’s third visit to Florida since his inauguration, but his first to stump for Democrats since losing the state to Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The Crist campaign did not release any additional information about the event, and no other details about Biden’s trip to Florida are currently known.

The announcement comes as recent surveys have continued to show that Biden is not particularly liked by voters in Florida, though those numbers have fluctuated into the height of election season. One Mason-Dixon poll earlier this month showed that 54% of Florida voters surveyed said they disapproved of him, while 42% said they approved.

Despite his unpopularity, Biden announced a visit to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale to rally for Democrats earlier this month. But those appearances were canceled days before Hurricane Ian made landfall in the state. Notably, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Val Demings — who is running against U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in what polls have suggested is a closer race than the gubernatorial — said at the time that she would skip his planned appearance in her hometown and would instead be in Washington.

Biden’s past two trips to the state have both been to pledge federal support to the state amid disaster recovery — once after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021 where 98 people died and the second on Oct. 5 to survey the damage after Hurricane Ian in the Fort Myers area. And while Biden and DeSantis have consistently targeted each other as political foes, they shook hands and praised the other’s immediate response to Hurricane Ian.

“I think he’s done a good job,” Biden said of DeSantis during his stop.

Crist, meanwhile, has continued to be significantly outraised by DeSantis, who is seen by national Republicans as a potential 2024 presidential candidate and has broken fundraising and spending records in the state. Crist’s campaign said the disparity was more recently compounded due to the campaign dedicating “all our resources to hurricane relief efforts.” The fundraiser, they said, “is a sign we are closing this campaign strong.”

While Demings has not campaigned with Biden, she appeared with first lady Jill Biden at a private event in the Orlando area on Saturday for what Demings’ campaign called a “women’s issues meet-and-greet that includes local leaders.”

Crist also attended an earlier event with the first lady, according to a press pool report.