To Biden or not to Biden: North Florida Democrats ignore the elephant in the room

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was published two hours before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and has since been updated. Read more here.

Charles and Dottie Lacey drove an hour in the driving rain from Madison County to Tallahassee Saturday to attend the 24th annual Democratic Club of North Florida's Barbecue and Old Fashioned Political Rally.

They and others feasted on pulled pork, cole slaw and baked beans, served up by city commissioners Curtis Richardson and Jack Porter, along with state Reps. Allison Tant and Gallop Franklin.

And they listened to a steady stream of candidates pledging support for the party’s favorite issues, such as expansion of reproductive rights; protection of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; and support for public schools.

But few seemed to want to address the elephant in the room out loud: The candidacy of 81-year-old President Joe Biden . Concerns over his ability to effectively lead in a second term reached a fever pitch after a disastrous debate performance in late June when he struggled to form coherent answers.

The question was mooted Sunday when Biden said he was ending his bid for reelection amid intense pressure from Democratic leaders sounding the alarm that his path to beat former President Donald Trump in November had vanished. The president's historic withdrawal now throws the 2024 race − already roiled by a shocking attempt on Trump's life − into uncertain territory, with Vice President Kamala Harris widely seen as the Democrat most likely to take Biden's place atop the party's ticket.

For the nearly 200 people who attended the political rally at the American Legion Hall at Lake Ella, however, the focus was closer to home, as candidates or their surrogates in races for city, county, state and congressional offices spent nearly three hours talking up their campaigns.

A common thread: Nearly all called for party unity as the key to Democratic victories in November. “This was outstanding. We had some great people up there,” said Charles Lacey, who said state senate candidate Daryl Parks and Tant boosted his spirits about Democrats' chances in the fall.

Democratic rally comes at pivotal political moment

The annual mid-summer political rally in Florida's capital comes at a peculiar moment for Democrats nationwide.

The national party has been in a twist over Biden. The state party is trying to recover from an epic defeat two years ago when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was reelected by a 19-point margin. And the local party has seen a two-decade decline in the share of Leon County of voters , dropping below 50% of registered voters for the first time ever.

Read more: Paler shade of blue: Democratic Party loses its voter majority in Leon County, data shows

“Regardless of what you have heard, this election is still winnable,” said John Hedrick, a Biden delegate to the Democratic National Convention and one of the hosts of the event. “I believe in this country there is an anti-Trump majority. Now the question is, will the Democrats stay united and show up in November at the ballot box?”

Biden had, up till Sunday, publicly rejected attempts to persuade him to step aside, opening rifts within the party along racial, class and ideological lines.

Those hot points for Democratic infighting are also present within the Leon County Democratic Party as it looks to help the state party flip a U.S. Senate now held by Republican Rick Scott and a north Florida state senate seat currently held by DeSantis ally and former Florida State football standout Corey Simon. Those races could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate and whether the GOP maintains a supermajority in the Florida Senate.

In Tallahassee and Leon County, all the commissioners are Democrats but the boards are divided into factions where, for example, one side alleges the other ignores voters' intent and favors campaign contributors over marginalized groups when decisions are made to spend tax dollars.

On Saturday, however, with a reporter in the room, Democrats downplayed any party infighting: “I think voters in Leon County are definitely more on the same page than ever before in rejecting Republican incursions into our local politics and government,” said Ryan Ray, chair of the local Democratic Executive Committee and aide to City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow.

Mayor John Dailey, who often votes opposite of Matlow and on the winning side of 3-2 votes on the City Commission, said it's not bad for commissioners to disagree, even though most votes are 4-1 or even 5-0. “You don’t want 5–0 votes on every single vote. That doesn’t represent diversity of thought,” the mayor said.

Democrats' spirits are low, local activist says

Still, Dave Jacobsen, who organized the local group's first barbecue in 2001, said Democrats’ spirits have not been this low since the 2000 election, when Republicans won the White House two years after taking control of state government.

In 2001, Jacobsen convinced former Attorney General Janet Reno, who was planning to run for governor, to be the keynote speaker at the first DCNF barbecue and rally. Jacobsen thought the excitement of a Reno campaign would energize the local party for the 2002 election.

“She drove a red Ford Ranger from Miami to our picnic. All the media was there, and she shook everyone’s hand and answered all their questions,” Jacobsen said. But Reno lost the Democratic primary to Bill McBride, who then lost to former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Since then, Florida Democrats have yet to resolve their differences enough to present a united front against the Florida GOP. Democrats hold no statewide office, but the GOP has supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate and comprises most of the congressional delegation.

Parks, running against Simon, received the loudest reception, punctuated with shouts of his campaign slogan, “C’mon man!”

He focused most of his remarks on Simon, questioning his role in the cost of insurance and spending for public schools, on which Parks said he will spend the next three months hammering Simon. Parks faces Gadsden County Commissioner Kimblin NeSmith, who did not attend the rally, in the Democratic primary.

With a pointed finger jabbing towards his audience, Parks urged them to ignore the drama around the top of the ticket and focus on the work at hand: “I say to you as Democrats that we must stay together. ... The period of being weak is over. We as Democrats will take back this seat, because we're going to talk about the issues that matter.”

Dailey told the crowd to remember the top prize in November is the presidential election. “This is a incredibly important general election cycle for the President of the United States. We have to turn out the Democratic vote for the Biden-Harris ticket. We have to show up,” he said.

Jacobsen and Hedrick, both of whom were to be Biden delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month, said they would support Biden as long as he is in the race. If Biden goes, their votes shift to Harris, they added.

When asked whether it made a difference who was at the top of the Democratic ticket, Dottie Lacey – a 73-year-old native Floridian from Miami now retired to Madison County – said she “would vote for a dead skunk if it was running against a Republican.”

USA TODAY contributed. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: To Biden or not to Biden: North Florida Democrats ignore the elephant in the room