WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris has already made five visits to Florida this year, and she has vowed that more are on the way.
Her most recent visits to Florida came within two weeks of each other this summer. Both times she went after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the state’s new Black history education standards, which tell teachers to instruct students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“Right here in Florida, they plan to teach people that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said during her Aug. 1 speech in Florida.
Ahead of that trip, DeSantis invited her to the state to have a discussion about the educational standards, after the vice president criticized them in Jacksonville days earlier.
During her Orlando visit she made national headlines for her response to his invitation saying, “There is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery.”
Harris touched down in Miami and Miami Beach this spring to talk about climate change and resiliency.
She also made a stop in Tallahassee in January to speak about abortion rights.
President Joe Biden, with Harris as his running mate, lost Florida in 2020, and Republicans now have about 500,000 more registered voters than Democrats.
Spectrum News asked the Biden-Harris campaign what the vice president's strategy for Florida is for 2024.
“VP Harris hasn't been afraid of any Republican running on the MAGA agenda of banning books, erasing history, and attacking a woman's right to make her own health care decision," a spokesperson said. "She's the leading voice on the most mobilizing issues for voters, and will continue to be on for the 2024 election.”
“In Harris's case, she's looking in terms of her opposition to a lot of those controversial policies to really bring them to light and bring them up to a national level and national stage and say, ‘Look, this is this is what's going on in Florida,’” said Florida Gulf Coast University Professor Sandra Pavelka.
Central Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost, who joined Harris in Orlando, touted the Biden administration’s presence in the state. Biden also visited Tampa in February to deliver remarks on Medicare, Social Security and prescription drug costs.
“I am very happy that they've been here a ton," Frost said. "And, I know they’ll be here a lot more."