At ‘Women for Harris’ rally in Tampa, Democrats dare to dream big

Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands speaking in Tampa on Aug. 24, 2024, (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)

Still on a cosmic high following the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a group of Florida state lawmakers came to Tampa on Saturday afternoon to imagine the seemingly impossible during a rally for the Kamala Harris campaign.

“Florida is in play!” insisted Tampa Bay area Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner, speaking in a rapid fire-style. “We’re going to shock the world on Nov. 5!”

The crowd of several hundred (overwhelmingly female) members of the audience at the Victor Crist Community Center in North Tampa cheered loudly in response.

“We’re going to have to make the case [to voters],” Rayner explained. “We’re going to have to talk to our neighbors. We’re going to make sure that our people in our circles know. So, every phone conversation. Every text message. Every door knock. We are making the case for Kamala Harris. We’re not taking anything for granted. We are leaving it all on the field this November for Kamala Harris.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Tampa City Councilmember Gwen Henderson, former longtime Hillsborough County School Board member Doretha Edgecomb, Hillsboorough County Commissioner Gwen Myers and state Rep. Dianne Hart also addressed the crowd, which an official with the Florida Democratic Party numbered just below 400 people.

But no speaker elicited a bigger response than Stacey Plaskett, who has served in Congress since 2015 as the non-voting delegate from the Virgin Islands.

“I know you guys are going to do something special,” Plaskett told the crowd. “You’re going to shock the s— out of this country!” as the audience exploded.

She then went on to verbally bash Florida’s top Republicans.

“You’re going to let Ron DeSantis know his days are OVER!” which lit the crowd on fire. She wasn’t done yet.

“You’re going to tell Rick Scott, pack your s— and get out of here!”

The audience erupted even louder.

“I need you to tell them that. I’m about tired of them. Listen. I served with Ron DeSantis,” she said, pausing for comedic effect. “Harvard don’t always put out a good product.” (The governor graduated from Harvard Law School).

In play?

While Democrats and some news sources have spoken of Florida “being in play,” neither political party has committed significant financial resources to the state, a noticeable departure from presidential election cycles in Florida over the past two decades-plus. In 2020, the state was very much in play, even though Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden by 3.3%.

It was also in 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic brought an influx of people into Florida, many of them registering as Republicans. That, as well as a drop in Democratic participation, led to DeSantis winning his re-election bid in 2022 by 19 points and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio winning re-election by 16 points. Epitaphs were written for Florida’s status as a battleground state.

Trump has made several campaign appearances in the Sunshine State this year, mostly in South Florida near his Mar-a-Lago estate. Joe Biden last appeared in Florida in late April , but NBC News did report on Saturday that Harris and vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz are “expected” to attend multiple fundraising events in the coming week, “most likely to take place in New York, California, Florida, and Georgia.” (Harris and Walz will launch a bus tour in South Georgia later in the week).

Jasmine Burney Clark, Florida state director of the Harris-Walz campaign, said Saturday that the campaign has 12 offices throughout the state and 60 staff members, and that more than 38,000 volunteers have signed up.

The most recent polls in Florida show Trump leading Harris by between 3 and 8 percentage points.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power on Saturday reposted on X a photo of what appeared to be a large crowd at Trump’s campaign event in Arizona on Friday night with the comment, “The ‘Florida is in play for Kamala’ group has a lot to learn.”

Florida Democratic House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell didn’t go as far as to declare that Harris would win Florida, but instead said, “We are on track this fall to break the Republican supermajority in the House and push them back.”

In addition to firing up the base, the programming at the DNC appealed to independents and even Republican voters, with former Georgia Lt. Gov. Jeff Duncan and former Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger giving speeches in prime time to announce their support for the Harris-Walz ticket.

A Republican convert

Another Republican supporting Harris this year is Brandy Leasure, a Plant City resident who attended the rally. She said the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 “was unacceptable,” and the attempted overthrow of the government was for her “the last straw.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning a woman’s federal right to abortion shocked her to her core and added to her motivation to vote Democratic in November.

“I’m 42. I never thought I would see the overthrow of Roe v. Wade in my entire lifetime,” Leasure said. “It was in place when I was born.”

It was important to hear Harris say during her convention speech that if elected she would sign legislation to codify Roe into federal law, something Democrats have said while campaigning on abortion rights this year, Leasure said.

For that to happen, not only would the Democrats have to control the House, the Senate, and the White House, but also choose to weaken the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to allow a vote on a bill. Democrats (or Republicans) could vote to remove the rule with a simple majority vote, although it’s uncertain whether enough members are okay with doing what some have labelled the “nuclear option .”

Leasure speculated that some registered female GOP voters may covertly vote for Democrats this fall — in other words, what will “conservative Republican wives” do in the voting booth when they “have no one watching?”

“They have no one to be accountable to but themselves. And I think that there will be a lot of conservative Republican women, especially white women, that are playing a part right now, and I think that they’re going to vote with their hearts and what’s right when they’re actually voting,” she said.

There are now 72 days before Election Day.