Even if Miami-Dade becomes Trump county, local Democrats can be relieved Biden withdrew | Opinion

Almost a month after his disastrous performance at the first presidential debate on June 27, President Joe Biden put our country before his party. He announced Sunday he would not run for a second term and sought to unite Democrats behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

It’s a bittersweet moment for a president who brought integrity and sanity to the office after the chaotic presidency of Donald Trump. Biden hit extraordinary milestones in the past 3 1/2 years of his term, passing bipartisan legislation that moves the nation’s workforce forward on building roads, bridges and technology and helping the nation’s economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the end, the obviously too frail 81-year-old president had to be cajoled off the presidential ticket by Democratic party leaders to re-energize their chances of defeating Trump in November.

In short, on policy, Biden is the most consequential and transformative president since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. But, after the first presidential debate, it became hard to believe he has the mental acuity to serve another four years.

If Harris, or another candidate, ends up at the top of the ticket, does that mean Florida — a state formerly considered a battleground but now essentially written off by Democrats — is back in play for Biden’s party?

Likely not, and Trump could still replicate GOP gains in 2022 and win Miami-Dade County, a Democratic bastion, in November.

“Unfortunately, given the Democrats’ abandonment of Florida, Trump is on track to turn Miami-Dade County into MAGA-Dade county in November,” Miami-based Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi told the Herald Editorial Board.

If Harris is picked the nominee at the Democratic National Convention, there’s no guarantee that she can win the White House — and the former president campaign’s on Sunday was quick to paint her as too liberal. Harris has her own issues to overcome — recent polling shows she is as unpopular as Biden.

But Democrats running down the ballot, in local, legislative and congressional races in South Florida and beyond, might have a fighting chance if their candidacy is not tied to an unpopular incumbent president.

As a former prosecutor, Harris has shown she is equipped to make the case for democracy and quash Trump’s antidemocratic strongman tendencies that have only gotten more intense since he won that first term in 2016. Biden failed to do that effectively at the presidential debate almost a month ago.

Harris showed she was capable to make a strong case against the former president as a U.S. senator during Trump impeachment hearings. And as vice president, she rose to be among the fiercest supporters of women’s reproductive rights after the Supreme Court that Trump packed with three conservative justices took away an almost half century right to allow abortions nationwide.

Biden struggled to articulate his stance on reproductive rights during the debate.

As the potential nominee, Harris could also be a boost for the fight over abortion rights taking place in Florida. Amendment 4, on ballot in November, would undo the state’s draconian six-week ban and make abortions legal up to the point of viability, which is usually at 24 weeks.

Harris visited Florida in May to talk about the issue and make the case that Trump is to blame for the end of Roe v. Wade. Republicans sense that abortion is a volatile issue for them — the issue barely came up during the Republican National Convention. Trump has tried to soften his stance on the matter.

Biden’s exit from the presidential race is historic. Florida might be too far gone for Democrats to carry it in November, but that doesn’t mean that the president’s decision to drop out isn’t going to help shake things up down the ballot.

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