Joe Biden joins Sen. Bill Nelson in Tallahassee
While the GOP protested his Tallahassee stop, the former Vice President pops into mid-town to urge voters to "restore" the country
Former Vice President Joe Biden can attract a crowd.
Tuesday he unexpectedly popped into a midtown coffee shop and while he held forth on the current state of politics, he was encircled by a crowd of more than 40, ranging in age from the mid-20s to the late 40s.
Biden is barnstorming Florida to get out the vote for Democrats in the midterm election.
He made joint speeches Monday in Tampa and Jacksonville with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s engaged in a tight race with Gov. Rick Scott, and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for Governor.
Tuesday Nelson brought Biden to Tallahassee to get out the university vote.
“If people age 18 -25 voted in the last election in the same percentage as the rest of the population there would have been 5.7 million more votes cast,” Biden said to a midday crowd at the RedEye Coffee shop at Thomasville Road and Fifth Avenue.
“You can own this election. Take it back,” he said to the under-30 voters in his audience.
Biden is considered a potential 2020 presidential candidate. He explained to folks at RedEye he decided to hit the campaign trail in the midterm because of the direction the country has taken under President Donald Trump.
Biden cited the Unite the Right rally last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, where speakers “spewed” anti-Semitic “bile” that Trump failed to condemn, the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and a foreign policy that “embraces” authoritarian leaders in Russia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
“We are in a fight for the soul of America – it is no joke,” said Biden.
“Whether you are your age, or you are my age,” said Biden to the mostly young crowd, "this is an election that is bigger than politics. This is much bigger than any single issue. This is about decency. About respect. About giving hate no harbor.”
The Democrats and their allies have worked to change the electorate this midterm with voter registration drives at university campuses and, among general voters in urban areas.
Tallahassee, a metro area with two universities and a major state college, is in the Democrats' target audience. The reelection of Nelson, a Democratic senator from a purple state, is key to the Democrats' effort to take control of Congress.
A Quinnipiac University poll this week gave Nelson a 6-point edge on Scott. A RealClear Politics average of six polls taken since mid-September gives Nelson a 3-point lead – results were within the margin of error in five of the polls. The race is considered a tossup.
Word that Biden was going to make a stop closer to the Florida State University campus drew a crowd of nearly 300 supporters and 15 protesters to the Sweet Shop on Jefferson Street earlier Tuesday.
Rhiannon Jacobsen, a junior from Bradenton studying political science, cut out of her Leadership in Change class to join the circus-like atmosphere that descended on the busy thoroughfare that borders the campus on the south.
“I’m here to see a great leader,” said Jacobsen. “He really pushes for doing the right thing. That is just something that not many people do anymore.”
Evan Power, leader of the Leon County Republican Party brought along 11 protesters who carried signs that called Nelson a career politician and that thanked him “for nothing.” Biden and Nelson never made it to Jefferson Street.
“This shows that Rick Scott is so much more popular than Bill Nelson,” said Power. “They have to bring Joe Biden to town to drum up support for Nelson – who’s been in office for 40 years. It is sad.”
Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com.
Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com.
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