TAMPA, Fla. — We are still two months away from the presidential elections, but both campaigns aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
While Vice President Kamala Harris is off the campaign trail this weekend, that didn’t stop her campaign from rallying support in Tampa Saturday, bringing the momentum coming off the Democratic National Convention to a room full of hundreds of voters.
“What’s beautiful about this momentum, it’s organic and how we keep it going is people who are keeping it going and people who want change,” said Florida State House Leader Fentrice Driskell.
Change also came in the way of the presidential race, as candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he was dropping out of the race and endorsing former President Donald Trump.
“Don’t you want a president who’s going to get us out of the wars and who’s going to rebuild the middle class in the country?” Kennedy said at a Trump rally on Friday night.
Lars Hafner, a political analyst with 10 Tampa Bay, says both campaigns will be focusing on keeping the momentum going now that the conventions are over.
“There’s always a bounce in the polls coming out of the convention. That’s what we saw coming out of the Republican convention where it almost looked like a Trump presidency was inevitable after their convention. But you never know what’s going to happen in the process,” said Hafner. “They had no idea Biden was going to drop out and Harris was going to take his place and so when the Democrat convention came around they had more energy at that point in time and will that last for the next 70 days.”
Hafner says both campaigns will focus on bringing their energy to the voters to get out to the polls.
“The message has to get honed really quick and the people have to get out and get that energy flowing. Florida is in the mix right now. They may not be the blue wall or southern strategy, but they are the state after that state,” said Hafner.
Hafner says both campaigns will begin focusing in on Florida as poll numbers get closer and closer.