Trump Miami rally mixes policy, showmanship to drive vote in pivotal Florida

OPA-LOCKA -- With just one day to go before Election Day, President Trump brought his version of political wrestlemania to South Florida late Sunday evening for one last rally in hopes of sealing a must-win victory in Florida.

"We're going to have a big victory," Trump said as the crowd at a northern Miami-Dade County airfield shouted "We love you."

"Two days from now we are going to win my home state of Florida and we are going to win four more years in the White House," he said, later adding: "We win Florida, we win the whole thing."

Trump again stated the country was "rounding" the corner on the pandemic despite all evidence to the contrary after a week in which the United States shattered global records for single-day positive cases. The rally itself, with attendees packed shoulder-to-shoulder and few wearing face coverings, again raised concerns by public health officials that it could serve as a super spreader event.

Under a full moon in a speech that ended shortly before 1 a.m. Monday, Trump also recited a checklist of campaign pledges including vowing to cut taxes, slash regulations, fund police forces and the U.S. military while preserving Second Amendment gun rights and religious liberty while spurring more manufacturing of products made in America.

He rattled off a list of successes including a 33 percent gross domestic product bounce back in the third quarter after the dramatic drop earlier in the year following the economic shut down to contain the coronavirus pandemic. He also cited the nominations of three Supreme Court justices and more than a hundred judicial appointments to the federal bench.

Trump also praised his administration's Middle Eats peace treaties and the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And military strikes to kill Iraqi terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani.

The rally, though, was dominated by Trump's flare for showmanship. Similar to a television show with a live audience, Trump engaged the crowd with the familiar whistles.

Mentions of former President Barack Obama and Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar elicited chants of "Lock him up" and "Lock her up."

Pointing to the media assembled in the back as "fake news" prompted boos and thumbs down gestures. When he alluded to the government shutdown, the crowd erupted into "Fire Fauci."

"In 2016 Florida voted to fire this corrupt political establishment and you elected an outsider as president who is finally putting America first," Trump said. "And if I don't sound like a typical Washington politician it's because I'm not a politician."

But Trump, in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, has shown the tenacity and stamina of a fierce political animal. The Opa-Locka rally culminated a five-rally day for the president on Sunday.

The schedule included stops in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina and Georgia -- all, like, Florida toss-up battleground states. Another five rallies are on tap for Monday, after spending the evening at his Doral golf resort, as Trump again seeks to outhustle his Democratic foe to victory as he did in 2016.

The late night Sunday event at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport brought thousands of the president's supporters. It also went beyond 12 a.m. despite the county still enforcing a midnight curfew.

The mood was a carnival atmosphere with vendors selling t-shirts, dozens of buses shuttling rallygoers and trucks in the parking blaring the hymn "Yo voy a votar por Donald Trump" by the group Los Tres de La Habana, a catchy tune that has gone viral on social media.

Attendees parked their vehicles at nearby Amelia Earhart park, where Trump-Pence campaign signs dotted the entrance along with signs for free COVID-19 tests.

Early in the day, the president's campaign got a morale boost from an ABC News/Washington Post poll that gave the incumbent Republican a two-point advantage over Democratic challenger Joe Biden, 50% to 48%. The survey broke a string of nearly a handful of polls last week showing Biden leading the contest for the Sunshine State's crucial 29 electoral votes.

A few hours before Air Force One landed, Florida wrapped up 14 days of in-person early voting.

In Palm Beach County, 614,282 voters - just over 60 percent of all registered voters - have already cast their ballots already. Turnout in the 2016 election was 74 percent. Of the early ballots, 60.6 percent were mail-in ballots.

Palm Beach County Democrats far out-voted Republicans in voting early, casting 46.1 percent of the early votes to Republicans' 28.6 percent and independent and minor party voters at 25.1 percent.

Total turnout in Florida is now over 60 percent - meaning Florida goes into election day with over 9 million voters having already cast their ballots. By comparison, about 9.5 million Floridians voted in the 2016 presidential election, according to Hawkfish, a data analytics firm started by billionaire Michael Bloomberg to help elect Democratic candidates.

About 19 percent of the total votes are from new voters, or voters who were registered but did not vote in 2016, according to Hawkfish analysis. From a partisan standpoint, 34 percent were Democrats, 33.3 percent had no party affiliation and 32.7 percent were Republicans.

As for age and race of new and returning voters, 27 percent are under the age of 30 and 45 percent are non-white, according to Hawkfish.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump Miami rally mixes policy, showmanship to drive vote in pivotal Florida

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