Doug Emhoff, the husband of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is telling major party donors that he believes his wife can win Florida in November. Speaking at a fundraiser in Manhattan on Wednesday evening, Emhoff told attendees that Florida is a potential battleground state and one Democrats should focus on.
“The map is wide open, and we need the money to compete in seven and possibly eight states. I was just in Florida at the Villages and it was wild,” Emhoff said. “It was way more people than we thought, and there was a lot of excitement, and we’re going to see what we can do down in Florida.”
Despite Democrats having secured two ballot initiatives aimed at driving turnout for the party—one expanding abortion and the other legalizing marijuana—polling and the 2022 midterm election results suggest the state remains far out of reach. Prior to Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald J. Trump led the 81-year-old Democrat incumbent in the state by double digits despite the abortion ballot measure.
Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics polling average currently has Trump leading in the state by six points over Kamala Harris. Another recent poll shows him leading by ten points.
During the 2022 midterm, the Florida Democratic Party faced a near-extinction-level event. Republicans in the state won most races in landslides and now control every state-wide office for the first time since the 19th-century Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. In the Florida House of Representatives and State Senate, Republicans captured a supermajority of seats.