By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden visits Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday to level the opponent Donald Trump to new abortion restrictions, hoping to improve his own chances in a state that fell out of reach for Democrats in recent elections.
Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for a six-week abortion ban that will take effect May 1, a period before many women realize they are pregnant.
Biden’s re-election campaign quickly declared the fight, saying he would win the state in November because of the ban. American voters overwhelmingly reject strict abortion bans, polls and state ballot initiatives show.
Abortion is a top issue in the 2024 election, and Democrats believe tough restrictions like those in Florida and Arizona, where a 160-year-old abortion ban was upheld earlier this month, will push voters to support Biden.
Biden will tell Americans in Florida and nearby states that their freedoms are in danger, campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez says.
“When Florida’s ban goes into effect, it will severely limit access to reproductive health care throughout the southeastern United States, including the neighboring battlegrounds of Georgia and North Carolina,” she added.
Access to abortion is now almost non-existent in southern states due to new laws, almost all of which are Republican-backed, forcing women to cross state lines.
Trump’s position on the issue has clouded in recent weeks. The Republican distanced himself from the Arizona ruling even as he took credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and enabled state restrictions.
uphill battle
Florida has more than thirty votes in the Electoral College and was a coveted state for a long time, but the Republicans have pulled away from the Democrats there in recent years.
Some Biden aides think Democrats’ optimism in the state could be misplaced.
Trump won Florida in 2020 with 51.2% of the vote, compared to Biden’s 47.9%. In 2022, Republican Ron DeSantis won the governor’s race in a landslide, with 59.4% of the vote.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Democratic Party of Florida, told Reuters she has seen increased investment in advertising, staffing and opening new offices in the state from the Biden campaign. Biden, she said, understands that the fight to win Florida is “an uphill battle, but one worth fighting.”
A compilation of polls from FiveThirtyEight, the election data website, shows Trump with a substantial lead in Florida.
“The idea that Donald Trump has Florida in the bag couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does he own the state of abortion rights across the country, he also owns the restrictions that are going to happen in Florida,” said Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign manager. communications director told reporters during a phone call.
In addition to the six-week ban, the Florida Supreme Court also approved an initiative to let voters decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to establish the right to abortion. That initiative will take place on the Nov. 5 ballot, alongside the presidential race.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates)
