ABC’s Jonathan Karl was on Reliable Sources this morning and he made an interesting point about election night. We are all rightfully anxious about the vote count being slow and Trump claiming victory prematurely on election night, with all the chaos that Trump is making sure will follow. But Karl pointed out that it may not be a long a count as we expect. He pointed out that Florida, which Trump has personally endorsed as a state that counts the mail-in votes fairly, generally gets their count done by midnight. If Biden wins Florida decisively, that could be the ballgame.
It is monumentally stupid that we even have to think about such a thing. It should not matter in the least who is ahead in the count on election night. The votes should be counted when they’re counted, fairly and properly. But we have Donald Trump as president and it doesn’t work that way. It’s all about the reality show, which he is using to foment possible violence and chaos if he doesn’t win. So this is an example of the ridiculous concerns you have to factor in.
Anyway, that made this story more interesting, and perhaps explains why it’s focused the way it is:
Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg plans to spend at least $100 million in Florida to help elect Democrat Joe Biden, a massive late-stage infusion of cash that could reshape the presidential contest in a costly toss-up state central to President Trump’s reelection hopes.
Bloomberg made the decision to focus his final election spending on Florida last week, after news reports that Trump had considered spending as much as $100 million of his own money in the final weeks of the campaign, Bloomberg’s advisers said. Presented with several options on how to make good on an earlier promise to help elect Biden, Bloomberg decided that a narrow focus on Florida was the best use of his money.
The president’s campaignhas long treated the state, which Trump now calls home, as a top priority, and hisadvisers remain confidentin his chances given strong turnout in 2016 and 2018 that gave Republicans narrow winning margins in statewide contests.
“Voting starts on Sept. 24 in Florida so the need to inject real capital in that state quickly is an urgent need,” said Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey. “Mike believes that by investing in Florida it will allow campaign resources and other Democratic resources to be used in other states, in particular the state of Pennsylvania.”
The last Republican to win the White House without Florida was Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and a loss of the state’s 29 electoral votes would radically shrink Trump’s paths to reelection. With Florida in his column, Biden would be able to take the presidency by holding every state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and winning any one of the following states: Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, all of which Biden leads in current public polling averages.
Obviously, The Democrats want to win Florida in any case. But it would be especially helpful to win this big state Trump has endorsed as having a fair election system on election night.