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The Biden campaign began to do something a little weird lately. They tried to convince voters that Florida was in play in the presidential election. 

The Biden campaign battleground states director, Dan Kanninen, told the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday that “Florida is absolutely in play.” He said the campaign is bullish on the state and is putting money and people in Florida to reclaim it from Republicans. 

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Democrats aren’t giving up on Florida, he said, though it is no longer a top-tier battleground state. 28 full-time staff has been hired, as well as a political director and a communications director. The campaign opened 13 offices in key cities from Miami to Pensacola. 

“We’ll have a presence in all the major markets in Florida,” said Kanninen, whose job is to decide in which states to invest campaign dollars. “Unlike Trump, who is not investing in this state, we have a strong team of leaders on the ground who are building organizing teams.”

Trump’s campaign probably is concentrating less on Florida because Governor Ron DeSantis flipped the state from a purplish swing state to a deep red state during his time in office. As long as Florida has DeSantis at the helm, that success will continue. At this point, Republicans outnumber Democrats by about a million in registered voters. Florida’s legislature has a Republican super majority. Areas that have been Democrat for years are Republican again. It was one of the few states that saw a red ripple in the 2022 midterm elections when many Republicans were expecting a red wave. 

The chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Evan Power, said, “We’re going to win Florida, and we’re going to win it big,” A Democrat hasn’t won since 2012 when Obama won over Romney. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Florida by 1% in 2016. He beat Biden by 3.3% in 2020. Ron DeSantis won re-election in 2022 by 20 points. Florida keeps turning red. 

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Biden said in April that Florida is in play but he’s generally dazed and confused about everything. Why would anyone take his word on anything at this point? 

Biden’s campaign manager was interviewed by Puck’s John Heilemann on his podcast and she waved the white flag about Florida. He asked whether the Biden campaign saw Florida as a battleground state and Jen O’Malley Dillon said no. Heilemann joked by saying he was worried she was “going to lie” and thanked her for being honest. 

It’s a fever dream at this point to think Florida, the third largest state and the fastest growing state, is Biden territory. The contrast between what a campaign battleground state director is saying and what the campaign manager said is noticeable. It makes Kanninen look out of touch. Or it makes him look like he’s not on the same page with the person running the national campaign. That’s not good for the campaign either way.

Dillion is bullish on North Carolina. 

“I think the job of the campaign is to keep as many battleground states in play for as long as possible, so we can navigate any flexibility in the race,” Dillon said on “Impolitic with John Heilemann,” released Friday.

Dillon told Heilemann she viewed North Carolina as a battleground, and she also agreed that Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada were top campaign targets. Biden won all of those states except North Carolina in 2020 en route to defeating Trump. 

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This time around, though, Trump is leading Biden in all those states right now, though they are tied in Wisconsin. The new RNC chair is the former GOP chair in North Carolina and Lara Trump, the new RNC co-chair, is originally from North Carolina, so I’m feeling pretty good about North Carolina. According to the Real Clear Politics aggregate, Trump is up 5.8%. Trump is at 47.6% and Biden is at 41.8%. On this date in 2020, Biden was up 2.4% and in 2016, Trump was up 1.3%. 

Florida’s size makes it an expensive state to advertise in and campaign in. It has 30 electoral votes so it is important. Let the Democrats waste their money.

Needless to say, Dillion’s moment of honesty on the podcast drew criticism from progressives.

The comments seemed to throw Florida politics into a tailspin, with even many Democrats viewing them as contradicting an April memo from Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez that declared Florida “winnable.”

“Not a lot of staffers, consultants or organizers are in a position to say it, but this was such an unnecessary, demoralizing gut punch,” Florida-based communications consultant Kevin Cate wrote on X about the comments, while urging fellow Democrats to keep up their work “and one day, we will flip it.”

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Them’s the breaks. A little honesty now and then is refreshing. We don’t see that often.