TAMPA, Fla. — If there was any question about just how important the Tampa Bay region is for political campaigns as we head into the stretch of the upcoming midterm election, this should put any doubt to rest.
Several candidates that will be on the ballot on Nov. 8 were in the local area as they work hard to win your vote.
With just days to go before the election, political experts said candidates need to be very selective about where they spend those remaining hours - targeting communities and regions they consider most important to their campaigns.
“It’s the people who crunch the numbers that tell the candidates where to go. And usually, that’s the I-4 corridor,” 10 Tampa Bay Political Expert Lars Hafner said. “Because in Florida, that’s still the switch, swing, persuadable voter.”
Hafner also said the Tampa Bay area is proving once again to be an election epicenter.
“If they want the swing voters, the persuadable voters that might still be out there we are going to see them in the Tampa Bay area because that’s where they think that they can get the last few votes they need,” Hafner said.
On Wednesday, for example, all within hours of each other, candidates Val Demings, who's running for U.S. Senate, and Janet Cruz, running for state senate, made appearances in Tampa’s Ybor City.
“The people will decide this election, right?” Demings said. “And we know that for the past year that the polls have been all over the place.”
A short time later, gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s running mate, Karla Hernandez, made an appearance in Manatee County at a library In Palmetto.
Shortly after that, Gov. Ron DeSantis made a stop in Pasco County.
“They know this is where the last few hold-out voters are and if it’s a close race this is where you have to be the most persuadable,” Hafner said. “That’s why we’re going to see a lot of campaigning in our Tampa Bay community.”
Hafner said that while there are other large population centers, like Miami Dade and northern Florida, the election's outcome in those regions is all but a foregone conclusion. They know how folks there are going to vote.
The communities that tend to favor Democrats sometimes and Republicans at others, Haffner said, are considered to still be in play.
People can expect to see candidates spending a lot more time in the Tampa Bay region in these remaining few days leading up to the election, according to Haffner.