Pence brings Trump’s closing message to Florida’s capital city

Vice President Mike Pence landed in Florida’s capital city airport Saturday evening to rally support for President Donald Trump in a region of the nation’s largest swing state that is central to his re-election strategy.

The event at the Tallahassee International Airport grappled with hours of pouring rain but that did not deter about 500 people from showing up.

“Even when it is raining, the Florida Panhandle is Trump country,” Pence told the boisterous crowd about an hour after the rally was scheduled to start.

The Trump campaign’s focus on the Florida Panhandle, the reddest region in the state, is an effort to juice turnout. With nearly 5 million ballots already cast in Florida, it’s no longer about gaining the support of new voters, but rather making sure those who already back Trump turn out and vote.

The scene was reminiscent of recent Trump rallies in Florida. Hundreds of supporters packed in an airfield, cheering to some of the usual themes: attacks on Democrats, promises to strengthen the U.S. military and protections for religious freedom and the Second Amendment.

Pence also continued the Trump administration’s focus on a positive spin about how they have handled the virus. The vice president promised a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year and vowed to reopen the economy and schools.

“We are all going to do our part to protect the vulnerable and save lives. As Joe Biden is talking about shutting down our country again, we are opening up America and we are opening up America’ schools,” Pence said during his 45-minute speech.

The United States reported 83,700 new coronavirus cases on Friday, shattering the previous record of 77,300 set in July. Over the past two weeks, Florida has reported an average of nearly 3,000 new cases daily, including a high of 5,449 on Wednesday.

Pence spoke to a crowd of mostly mask-less supporters despite event staff offers masks and asked attendees to use them.

Ahead of the rally, Trump once again falsely claimed coronavirus cases has spiked as a result of increased testing. In Florida, testing levels have widely varied over the past two weeks from a low of 24,575 on Oct. 9 to nearly 110,000 in the past two days.

As Pence visited Lakeland and Tallahassee, the Democratic National Committee launched ads reaching voters in those cities that focused on Trump’s “failed” response to the coronavirus.

Pence’s stop in North Florida is a continuation of the Trump campaign’s focus on the very conservative region of the state. It followed a boisterous Trump rally in Pensacola on Friday night. Pence landed in Tallahassee shortly after holding a separate rally in Lakeland, and Trump himself held a rally in Pensacola Friday night.

The boisterous in-person rallies come less than two weeks ahead of Election Day. Hours before Saturday’s rallies, Trump cast his ballot in Palm Beach County, where he is a resident and registered voter.

Trump votes early in West Palm Beach as both campaigns rally in Florida

Through Saturday morning, Democrats held a roughly 390,000 vote lead, an advantage due in large part to a high volume of vote-by-mail. Republican have been making up ground since in-person early voting began Monday. But Election Day is when GOP voters tend to turn out in droves.

“It’s the patriotic thing to do,” said Jonathan Lefler, a 36-year-old youth pastor in Tallahassee who along with his wife, Amber, plans to vote in-person on Election Day.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton was winning by 240,000 votes in Florida going into Election Day. She lost to Trump by 112,911 votes.

Florida Congressman Neal Dunn and Pence, however, urged supporters at the rally to vote early.

“Don’t wait to the last minute to vote because things pop up,” Dunn told the crowd.

Pence’s decision to rally support in Leon County, a Democratic stronghold that is home to Tallahassee, is strategic. The Democratic stronghold sits in an otherwise conservative Panhandle region, which Trump overwhelmingly won in 2016.

In a state once again expected to produce a razor-thin victory margin, Trump will need to turn out huge numbers in conservative strongholds that helped him secure his narrow win in 2016.

He will need the votes of people like Tammy Frick and her best friend, Casey Larson, two women in their 40s who traveled to the Tallahassee rally from Wakulla County, a deep red county located just a few miles south of Tallahassee.

Frick and Larson say they are voting for Trump because they see him as a pro-life candidate.

“Being pro-life is an important issue,” Larson said. “We are Christians.”

Trump has used the issue of abortion to rouse his base, particularly the voting bloc of Christian conservatives. Frick said Trump’s stance against late-term abortions is the main reason she supports the president. Trump, however, has made many false claims about the issue.

Pence revived the issue of abortion in Saturday’s rally, and claimed Trump is “the most pro-life president in American history.”

Trump is also counting on the vote of people like Jonathan Lefler, a Tallahassee resident who says his support for the president has only grown since 2016. Lefler said he is voting for Trump because he doesn’t want his taxes to increase, and because he has been pleased with his performance.

“He is not like other politicians, he kept his promises and he over-exceeded on a lot of promises,” Lefler said. “The economy has been crazy, he built it so well and then he built the wall.”

On Saturday, Pence remained squarely focused on the issues most popular with Trump’s political base.

“Joe Biden will be nothing more than a Trojan horse for the radical left and will take our country somewhere we don’t want,” Pence said. “Joe Biden said Democracy is on the ballot, but I think our economic recovery is on the ballot, I think law and order is on the ballot.”