Tampa, Florida (CNN) — President Joe Biden is heading to Florida on Tuesday where his team is seeking to leverage a restrictive abortion law to put the state in play for Democrats, seeing reproductive rights as a galvanizing issue for voters.
Democrats have seized on abortion ahead of November, hoping it could spur moderate voters – particularly women – to turn out in droves against former President Donald Trump by tying the abortion bans directly to him.
Biden’s campaign often cites Democratic successes in the 2022 midterms and off-year elections since Roe v. Wade was overturned as examples of the issue driving voters to the polls.
And they’ve put a renewed focus on Florida following a pair of state Supreme Court rulings this year – one paving the way for a six-week abortion ban in Florida, the other giving Floridians a chance in November to enshrine abortion access in the state’s constitution. Biden campaign officials and Democratic strategists are hoping elevating the issue in the state will help drive voter turnout and potentially deliver the state for Biden.
Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks, making it one of the most restrictive states in the country to obtain an abortion. The ban will go into effect May 1 after the state Supreme Court recently overturned decades of legal precedent in the state that protected abortion through the second trimester of a pregnancy.
Biden’s Tuesday trip is part of a strategy by his campaign to keep the issue at the forefront, arguing that it’s part of a broader threat to personal freedoms and health care. In an example of how salient an issue abortion is for the campaign, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ first joint campaign appearance this election year was focused on reproductive rights.
“Trump will do everything he can to ban abortion nationwide. Whenever Trump has had power, he’s used it to take away rights from women. His track record of disrespecting women is famously consistent, spans decades, includes his personal life, his business career, and his time as an elected official,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters.
During Tuesday’s event, Biden is also expected to invoke the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to revive a 160-year-old law barring all abortions except in cases when “it is necessary to save” a pregnant woman’s life.
In a recent stop in Arizona, Harris, who’s crisscrossed the country to talk about reproductive rights, cast restrictive abortion laws as “Trump abortion bans.” She continued that pitch on Monday in battleground Wisconsin – advancing the Biden campaign’s “split screen” as Trump sat in court.
Trump has shifted his abortion position over the last two decades, and most recently, argued that abortion legislation should be left to the states. But Trump’s own status as a Florida resident means he will have an opportunity to directly weigh in on the abortion referendum in November. His advisers have not said how he’ll vote.
Democrats have struggled to find success in Florida, which has voted Republican in the last two presidential elections and has shifted to the right. Biden lost Florida voters 65 and older to Trump by 10 points in 2020, a wider gap than his 5-point deficit nationally.
But there are some signs that the campaign could shift in his favor: The state’s 2024 ballot will include referendums to legalize recreational marijuana and expand abortion access through state constitutional amendments, which could energize Biden’s base.
“The last time there was an abortion referendum on the ballot, in 2012, President Obama won the state. So, with our enormous financial advantage, Biden-Harris campaign can afford to invest in many paths to victory and that includes Florida,” Tyler said.
Privately, though, Democrats here acknowledge turning the state blue this cycle remains a herculean task and success may be defined by how much they can force Trump to spend in Florida to protect his advantage here.
During Biden’s last trip to Tampa, in early 2023, he railed against GOP efforts to curb entitlements, drawing a contrast with the state’s GOP Sen. Rick Scott, who made a proposal to sunset federal legislation – including Social Security and Medicare – every five years. Florida has the highest population of seniors of any state.
Abortion rights, social security and Medicare, among other issues, were listed in a recent campaign memo, arguing that Biden has an opening in Florida and laying out investments in the state.
In late January, Biden told a group of donors at a high-dollar fundraiser in south Florida that he believes he can win the Sunshine State.
“I think we can win Florida,” he said Tuesday in Jupiter, Florida, about 20 miles from his predecessor’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
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