In an effort to win Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris took her campaign to The Villages on Saturday, a stronghold of Republicans and Donald Trump, where a video of dozens of golf carts lined up for Harris’ event has gone viral on social media.
Last week, President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race after mounting pressure to end his re-election campaign due to his poor debate performance against Trump and concerns about his age. Shortly after his resignation, Biden endorsed Harris for the Oval Office.
On Saturday, it was part of the campaign’s “Weekend of Action” for Harris, the campaign vice president at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida that has traditionally supported Trump, his Republican opponent. Trump previously won Florida, a popular state with 30 Electoral College votes, in 2016 and 2020.
Democratic candidate Barbie Harden Hall, who is running to represent the district, posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, of Harris supporters, writing: “HUNDREDS OF GOLF CARTS! And I don’t even know how many supporters are along the route! The Villages, Florida has FIRED UP for @KamalaHarris.”
Hall’s video showing a caravan of golf carts, the community’s main form of transportation, draped in American flags as they entered the rally has since gone viral, with some Harris supporters sharing it again.
Jon Cooper, a Democratic fundraiser, reposted Hall’s video to more than 5 million views, as of Sunday afternoon. “Trust me when I say it’s the SUPER-RED community that used to be a real hotbed of Trump support. The fact that there were over 200 golf carts at this rally for @KamalaHarris today is INCREDIBLE!” he wrote.
Hall’s video has received over 41,000 views, while the same video on the X account @Harris_wins, has been viewed over 3.6 million times.
Newsweek The Harris campaign reached out to verify details of the rally in an email on Friday.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Jaime Harrison said on MSNBC The weekend there, “The Villages is ruby ​​red-there are 500 senior golf carts riding around, and probably voted for Donald Trump, before, supporting Kamala Harris. This is an energy on the ground that I have not seen since Barack Obama in 2008.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email on Sunday.
The Florida Democratic Party supported Harris’ campaign trip and wrote in a press release on Sunday that he had “strengthened the entire Democratic base” over the past week, adding, “Nearly 10,000 new Floridian volunteers – many from traditionally conservative places like The Villages – have come forward to fight Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the extremism of the Republican Party.”
Since Biden only left the race a week ago, there are limited polls about a potential Harris-Trump matchup in the state.
A Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll of voters in nine states, mostly swing states, conducted between July 22 and 24, found Trump leading Harris in Florida by an additional 8 percentage points over Biden’s predecessor. The poll surveyed 6,927 voters and it was unclear how many were from Florida.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for a common field.