Helene wrecked the Southeast. Will Florida still get a presidential candidate visit?

Former President Donald Trump is making a campaign stop Monday to survey a hurricane-torn area .

But it’s the battleground state of Georgia that’ll have his attention. The Trump campaign announced shortly after he left the stage at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday that the former president planned to receive a briefing about Hurricane Helene in Valdosta, Georgia, and then distribute relief supplies and speak with reporters. Onstage, Trump had said that Vice President Kamala Harris “ought to be down in the area” where the storm hit.

He’s not the only one planning to survey the damage. Later Sunday, President Joe Biden told FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell that he planned to visit “impacted communities” this week “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” but didn’t specify which state. Then, the White House on Sunday night alerted the press pool that Harris would also do a visit once it was possible to do so without disrupting the emergency response.

“We will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild,” she said onstage at a campaign rally in Las Vegas.

The role of “consoler in chief” is a rite of passage for elected officials. How they respond to natural disasters and other similar crises can make or break their political futures, as well as give them opportunities to show leadership or unity.

But it’s still an open question whether Florida will be on the receiving end of a presidential candidate visit when two electoral swing states — Georgia and North Carolina — are also among the states most affected by the hurricane. At least 13 people in Florida have been confirmed killed and Helene marked the third hurricane in just over a year for the Big Bend area. Tampa Bay is still contending with overwhelming storm surge. But unlike in some other past hurricanes, where Florida bore the brunt of the storm, damage across the Southeast United States has been devastating.

Presidents (and presidential hopefuls) don’t just visit disaster sites in politically important states. But a visit to Florida’s impacted areas by Trump or Harris would go beyond just supporting storm recovery. It would speak volumes about whether they see Florida as truly in play in November. Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said the campaign didn’t have anything to share about Florida at this time and the Harris campaign pointed Florida Playbook to the White House, which didn’t respond.

Biden visited Florida roughly one week after Hurricane Ian hit in 2022 , alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis. In 2023, Biden visited Florida three days after Hurricane Idalia hit, but DeSantis said the timing would be too disruptive to the recovery efforts . Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) took the meeting with Biden instead .

The storm’s handling and the issues around it are already playing into the 2024 campaign. Trump criticized Harris for holding fundraising events in California over the weekend “when big parts of our country have been devastated by that massive hurricane.” (Trump was also on the campaign trail in Michigan and Pennsylvania.) The Harris campaign hit back on social media , highlighting a clip from Sunday’s rally in which Trump mocked climate change.

Biden approved a major disaster declaration on Sunday for 17 Florida counties, as well as disaster declarations in other states that have been impacted by Helene. (Leon, where Tallahassee is located, wasn’t among the Florida counties after the city avoided a direct impact.) On Saturday, the president vowed that his administration would be with the state “every step of the way” and “make certain that no resource is spared” in rebuilding. The major disaster declaration helps to provide temporary housing assistance and allows for Floridians to apply for grants and low-interest loans to help with home repairs.

Criswell, the FEMA administrator, has already been at press conferences alongside DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, over the weekend.

DeSantis, too, has been thrust into the spotlight amid the storm recovery and spent the weekend making multiple stops to storm-torn areas across the state. On top of the humanitarian toll, storm response can determine the legacy of Florida chief executives. Helene isn’t the most destructive or deadly hurricane DeSantis has responded to as governor, but it’s the largest since he dropped out of the presidential race. And it comes as the term-limited DeSantis enters the final two years of office, with some signs that his influence has already slipped in the state.

DeSantis isn’t on the ballot this November, but his response to the storm could still affect how the public views him — and stall or fuel his agenda during his last two years as governor and beyond.

This story first appeared in Florida Playbook. Sign up today to get the top news from the Sunshine State delivered to your inbox every weekday.