As the Democratic National Convention got underway, the party’s senior members of Congress from South Florida are touting Vice President Kamala Harris — and warning about the threat they see from former President Donald Trump.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former national Democratic Party chair and the senior Democratic member of Congress from Florida, was scheduled to address the convention Monday evening.
Offering a “cautionary tale,” Wasserman Schultz planned to cite policies implemented by Republicans who control all levers of government in Florida as examples of what could happen to the country if Trump becomes president again.
“For the people of my state, Project 2025 isn’t just a threat. It’s a reality we battle every day,” she planned to say. Democrats have been highlighting Project 2025, the controversial hard-right agenda crafted by Trump allies for how they’d run the government if they’re victorious.
Florida, she prepared to warn in her speech, is “a testing ground for the right’s most egregious, dangerous policies.”
Earlier, at a breakfast meeting of the Florida convention delegation, Wasserman Schultz delivered a fiery speech praising Harris, touting Democratic values and reminding people of what life was like when Trump was president.
“Our amazing record of successes stands in stark contrast to the steaming Dumpster fire Trump handed over to us. Don’t let them fool you. When Trump was in the White House, remember we were all hoarding toilet paper as he mused about using bleach for medicine. Republicans did that. Neo-Nazis marched through Trump’s America with torches screaming, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ And antisemitism and anti-Asian hate surged,” she said.
“Please never forget the anxiety and dread that we all woke up with every morning that Trump was president. I remember dreading looking at my notifications on my phone,” Wasserman Schultz said.
“It is a clear choice. Kamala is strong and smart and she fights for freedom, security and economic opportunity. And Donald Trump is a weird, lying crook who only cares about himself and his rich friends,” she said.
Frankel’s view
Frankel, who like Wasserman Schultz has been to multiple conventions, said this year’s in Chicago is different.
Frankel said in a phone interview that she sees a “dramatic surge of enthusiasm” driven largely by “the real possibility of our first woman president, a woman of color. For many of us, it’s just, it is so exhilarating and uplifting.”
Frankel said she doesn’t think any resistance to a woman president would affect the outcome in November. “You know what, there’s always gonna be bias but I don’t think it’s gonna hold, I don’t think it’s going to prevent Harris from winning. Just look across the world. We’re sort of behind on that. There have been women presidents, prime ministers all over the world that have been very successful.”
Frankel said she didn’t think gender was the reason Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Trump. (Clinton won the popular vote; Trump won the Electoral College.)
“She was snake bitten,” Frankel said. “She lost that race because of just these crazy circumstances.”
Like many Democrats, Frankel said the announcement by then-FBI Director James Comey that the agency was reopening an investigation into her private email server just days before the election was politically toxic. “That’s why she lost.”
Frankel is familiar with close presidential elections.
She was Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives during the tumultuous aftermath of the contentious George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential election in 2000. Bush ultimately was declared the winner of Florida by 537 votes, which made him president. (It was the last time a sitting vice president was the presidential nominee of either party.)
Back in spotlight
Wasserman Schutz got personally caught up in presidential campaign crossfire.
This year’s Chicago convention is far from Philadelphia, where Democrats gathered for their 2016 presidential nominating convention.
In Chicago, Wasserman Schulz had the speaking slot, did an interview on the CNN set at the convention site at the United Center, and was applauded at the Florida delegation’s breakfast on Monday.
In Philadelphia, she was the embattled national party chair. Handpicked by then-President Barack Obama for the job, she resigned from the job at the beginning of the convention after leaked emails showed the party was helping Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign while Bernie Sanders was still a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She was greeted by so many protesters at the Florida delegation meeting on the Monday morning of the 2016 convention, that her speech was turned into a chaotic scene. As a result, plans were shelved for her to gavel the convention to order even though she helped plan it.
Wasserman Schultz has since been repeatedly reelected by constituents in South Florida, and holds a party leadership role in the House as a co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
Optimistic about Florida
Frankel said the “unprecedented level of enthusiasm” suggests to her that Harris could win Florida. (The last time that happened, when Obama ran for reelection in 2012, Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans. Now there are 1 million more Republicans than Democrats in Florida.)
“Can we win Florida? Absolutely,” she said — if Democrats have enough financial resources, which hasn’t yet happened. “We’re working on it,” Frankel said. She predicted that the referendum that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution means “you’re going to see the women flood to the polls.”
Biden
The presidential picture has changed since President Joe Biden ended his campaign for reelection last month and Harris became the nominee.
“The exuberance and the excitement right now and the way we’re unified, coming together as a party from all points of view across the spectrum has been remarkable,” Wasserman Schultz said on CNN.
Harris is doing much better in polling, in Florida, in swing states critical to determining the outcome, and nationally than President Joe Biden was when he was running for a second term.
“I’m going to just give you the obvious answer, which is, I think, her youthfulness probably is the main reason,” Frankel said. “Obviously for women is the potential, the first woman president and woman of color, I think that’s a big one.”
Wasserman Schultz is a longtime Biden supporter , starting with his first presidential campaign, in 1988 when she was involved in Students for Biden at the University of Florida.
Still loyal, she said on CNN that Biden wasn’t “forced out in any way.”
“Joe Biden is a beloved leader because he is such a good man,” she said. “He was the good, decent human being who you knew you could count on.”
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
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