It’s Trump to the rescue.
GOP gubernatorial candidates locked in nail-biter races in Florida and Georgia are counting on President Trump to get them over the goal line.
Trump was in Fort Myers for a rally Wednesday night and returns to Pensacola on Saturday to push for former Rep. Ron DeSantis, one of his most fervent supporters in Congress.
In boosting DeSantis, Trump has gone all out in attacking his Democratic rival for the governor’s job, Andrew Gillum, even to the point of branding him “a thief.”
“In Florida there is a choice between a Harvard/Yale educated man named @RonDeSantisFL who has been a great Congressman and will be a great Governor — and a Dem who is a thief and who is Mayor of poorly run Tallahassee, said to be one of the most corrupt cities in the Country!” Trump tweeted.
Gillum responded by saying he was taught to “never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.”
Trump’s charge was aimed at Gillum’s 2016 decision to accept a ticket to see the Broadway show “Hamilton” from a group that included an undercover FBI agent.
But no one has been charged with a crime in the case.
Gillum, who makes no bones about his liberal bona fides, is the Sunshine State Democratic Party’s first black nominee for governor. DeSantis is a US Navy vet who represents a conservative district on Florida’s Atlantic Coast that includes Daytona.
DeSantis’ post-primary remark that Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by voting for a liberal Democrat injected race into the contest.
But he denied that he had any racial intent and his campaign accused Gillum of playing the race card and trying to deflect attention from allegations of unethical behavior.
The RealClearPolitics average of recent public polls gives Gillum 46.9 percent and DeSantis 43.9 percent.Trump will also push for Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the Senate against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, even though Scott has distanced himself from the president on several issues.
Like the governor’s race, this one’s tight — Nelson 46.6 and Scott 44.6 in the RealClearPolitics average.
Scott has run ads in Spanish saying he’s “confronted” Trump over his claim the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria was inflated, in an effort to appeal to Puerto Rican transplants in Florida.
The rallies will mark the 38th time Trump has campaigned for himself or other Republicans in the key swing state, which voted for Barack Obama twice before switching sides and narrowly backing Trump in 2016.
“He’s looking at 2020 and the biggest prize of the purple states is here in Florida,” said Peter Bergerson, professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Obama also will visit Florida on Friday to campaign for Gillum.
The races reflect a deeply divided and diverse state, and changing demographics may give Gillum an edge, one expert said.
“Many people still have this old image of Florida that it’s all about retirees and nothing else, but right now the three youngest generations — Generation X, Millennials and the Gen Zers — make up over half the registered voters,” said Susan MacManus, University of South Florida professor emerita. “They are going to be the difference one way or another.”
Currently, Florida’s electorate is 37 percent registered Democrats and 35 percent registered Republicans. But the fastest growing segment at 27 percent is voters with no party affiliation, MacManus said.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Oprah Winfrey will campaign for Stacey Abrams as the Democrat tries to become the first black woman governor in the US.
Winfrey will hold two town halls and knock on doors Thursday to encourage voters to come out for Abrams on Tuesday.Winfrey’s visit to the Peach State comes a day before Obama will campaign for Abrams and other Democrats during a rally at the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Other high-profile Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, have also stumped for Abrams.
Her opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, also has some political powerhouses in his corner.
Vice President Mike Pence will attend a number of rallies with Kemp on Thursday, and Trump, who has already endorsed Kemp, will travel to Macon on Sunday to hold a rally with him.
The race is a statistical dead heat in the RealClearPolitics average — Kemp 47.8 and Abrams 46.4.
With a third candidate in the race — Libertarian Ted Metz — a December runoff could be required to determine the winner if neither Abrams nor Kemp garners a majority of the votes.
The battle has been marred by allegations of voter suppression during early voting that primarily affects blacks.
In a debate last week, Abrams accused Kemp, whose office oversees elections and has held up 53,000 voter registration applications, of creating an “atmosphere of fear.”
Kemp dismissed her claims as a “farce.”
With Wires