Trump launches charm offensive in bid for Florida Republicans

From: POLITICO Florida Playbook - Friday Nov 03,2023 11:03 am

Nov 03, 2023

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Donald Trump speaks.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate April 4, 2023. Trump has raised more than $34 million for his 2024 campaign since the start of the year, according to his campaign. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Good morning and happy Friday.

Former President Donald Trump is wooing Florida Republicans before and after this weekend’s big Republican gathering in Central Florida — his latest move to undercut Ron DeSantis in the governor’s own state.

DeSantis and Trump will join other GOP presidential candidates and top Florida Republicans speaking at the state GOP’s Freedom Summit in Kissimmee Saturday. Trump, who’s still dominating the polls in early states and nationally, will close out the event while DeSantis will deliver a speech earlier in the day.

Trump’s team in recent days has been trying to shore up support among the Sunshine State’s key Republicans. He sent invitations to local party leaders to join him at a rally in Hialeah scheduled for Nov. 8 — the same day as the Republican debate next week in Miami that he refused to attend.

To entice the invitees, Trump is offering them “special guest seating” and “expedited entry” to the rally, which will be held at a stadium, and attendees can bring a guest to the event in Hialeah, a Hispanic-majority Miami neighborhood, according to an invitation viewed by Playbook. The passes will give guests a way to skip long lines and offer better seating at the event.

Then, the evening after the GOP debate, Trump is hosting Republican leaders from Florida’s 66 counties at Mar-a-Lago. He’s invited at least 200 party officials — each with a guest — to his resort for a “meet-and-greet opportunity.” Light food and drinks are expected to be served and Trump is scheduled to speak, said three Republican invitees to the event who plan to attend. They were granted anonymity to speak freely about the situation.

"It’s important to get people together in a room so they feel appreciated," said one Florida Republican invited to both the rally and the Mar-a-Lago event, who called next week's events a "smart side-by-side."

While Trump has the backing of most of Florida’s GOP congressional delegation, DeSantis has more support from Republican members of the state Legislature. But even that could change.NBC News this week reported that Trump’s allies are actively trying to convince Republican legislators who endorsed DeSantis to withdraw their support and back Trump.

At least one former DeSantis ally has flipped. Rep. Randy Fine, Florida’s only Republican Jewish state lawmaker, last week changed his endorsement from DeSantis to Trump, claiming that the governor hadn’t done enough to counter antisemitism.

Yesterday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also endorsed Trump, though that’s less surprising since the senator is an ally of the former president and has long had poor relations with DeSantis. Scott’s endorsement was first reported by The Messenger. Both Fine and Scott will be speaking at Saturday’s Freedom Summit.

— WHERE'S RON? Gov. DeSantis will be at events in Iowa with Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting his candidacy.

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com

... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ...

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House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo chat at the rostrum.

House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo chat at the rostrum after a joint session for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' State of the State speech Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. | Phil Sears/AP Photo

SPECIAL SESSION AGENDA — The Legislature is poised to spend half a billion, reports POLITICO’s Gary Fineout. Lawmakers filed bills yesterday ahead of the four-day special session that starts Monday. Among the bills is more than $181 million toward the My Safe Florida Home program that helps people make their homes more resilient to hurricanes and also tends to lower the cost of insurance. The funding is expected to cover the current backlog of 17,000 people.

Other bills will allow the Legislature to formally pledge support to Israel amid the ongoing war with Hamas and lawmakers plan to expand existing state-authorized sanctions against Iran by widening the list of companies covered.

HOME HARDENING FINDING — Disaster relief bill includes break for developers, reports POLITICO's Bruce Ritchie. Buried inside a lengthy special session bill designed to provide hurricane relief and help homeowners harden their homes against storms is a break for developers in 10 southwest Florida counties.

‘UNWINDING’ — “A hearing date is set in the challenge to Florida's Medicaid 'redetermination,’” by News Service of Florida. “U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard will hear arguments in Jacksonville on a request for a preliminary injunction that would require Medicaid officials to reinstate coverage to people dropped from the program in recent months and to end additional terminations until adequate information is provided.”

SCHOOL CHOICE TROUBLES — “Parents with special-needs kids decry school voucher funding woes, by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s leslie Postal. “Florida’s historic expansion of voucher programs this spring delighted many school choice supporters, but some parents of children with disabilities haven’t received the scholarships, some have struggled with funding delays and others are upset they got a limited-use payroll card instead of direct deposit.”

LETTER — “ACLU calls out Florida over efforts to ‘chill’ free speech of pro-Palestine students,” reports Florida Phoenix’s Jackie Llanos. “More than 600 college and university leaders received a letter urging them to reject political calls to investigate and punish student groups for exercising free speech, using Florida as the main example.”

PENINSULA AND BEYOND

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GRANTED — “Hearing delayed for suspect arrested in Ybor City shooting,” reports the Tampa Bay Times’ Michaela Mulligan. The suspect, Tyrell Phillips, 22, “appeared over video at the Hillsborough County courthouse in Tampa Thursday morning and was reminded by Judge Catherine Catlin that he had the right to the pretrial detention hearing within five days of his arrest. Phillips agreed to the continuance, and Catlin granted the delay in the hearing.”

Meanwhile, Tampa leaders are discussing implementing a youth curfew and closing businesses at 1 a.m. in response to the shooting, in which a 14-year-old was among those killed, around 3 a.m., reports the Tampa Bay Times' Olivia George. But business owners and residents rejected the idea.

IT’S OFFICIAL — UF inaugurated former US Sen. Ben Sasse as its 13th president, reports Fresh Take Florida’s Claire Grunewald. “Sasse officially took office as UF’s president in February. He said he was persuaded to accept the job and retire from the Senate partly by conversations with the Board of Trustees chairman, Mori Hosseini. In a meeting afterward with a small group of reporters, Sasse said UF has not yet deactivated a campus chapter of a pro-Palestinian student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine.”

SENTENCED — “The leader of a well-known antisemitic group will spend the next 30 days in jail, months after he tossed flyers with hateful content onto Palm Beach County residents’ properties, live-streamed it on social media and told police he would continue to toss them, even after he was cited,” reports Angie DiMichele of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Jon Minadeo, 40, is the leader of the Goyim Defense League, which the Anti-Defamation League has said is a ‘loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism’ in several states but most notably in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New York, South Carolina and Texas.”

CAMPAIGN MODE

A message from Alibaba:

STANDS BY HIS PLEDGE — DeSantis has promised to stick by whoever is the GOP nominee — even if that nominee ends up being a convicted Trump, the governor confirmed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “Do I think somebody under those circumstances could get elected president? The answer is no. That will not happen … It would be fatal in a general election,” he said.

DATELINE D.C.

FILE - In this March 27, 2019 file photo, Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., speaks as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on budget on Capitol Hill, in Washington.

ISRAEL AID — Five Florida Democrats joined Republicans last night in passing a GOP-led Israel aid bill.

Reps. Lois Frankel, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Federica Wilson all voted for the $14.3 billion Israel aid bill. Twelve House Democrats voted for the bill and Florida members accounted for almost half of them.

“The United States has a moral duty and national security urgency to aid Israel in defending itself,” Frankel said in a statement. “Make no mistake, Hamas terrorists and others in the region are out to destroy Israel and kill all Jews. We must send an unequivocal message to the world that we stand with Israel.”

Reps. Maxwell Frost, Kathy Castor, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick voted against the bill. Castor said she opposed the bill for its lack of foreign aid for other countries and humanitarian aid for Palestinians.

“It is in America’s national security interest to ensure that the conflict does not widen as Israel defends itself after the barbaric terrorist attack,” Castor said in a statement.

While the bill passed the House, it’s dead on arrival in the Senate. Leaders from the other chamber want the Israel aid to be tied to other foreign aid such as Ukraine and Taiwan and even U.S.-Mexico border security.

— Mia McCarthy

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ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN

WANNA BET? — DeSantis promised he’d wear a shoe on his head if Trump “can summon the balls” to show up to the Miami debate on Wednesday. (There’s also new merch to go with the zinger.)

FALL BACK — Don’t forget daylight savings time is this Sunday, despite Florida GOP U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s efforts to end the practice through legislation that passed the U.S. Senate, but not the House, last year.

BIRTHDAYS: State Rep. Susan Valdes … Former University of Florida President W. Kent Fuchs … former state Rep. Delores D. Hogan Johnson … Former state senator Jack Latvala … (Saturday) State Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera … State Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson … State Rep. Blaise Ingoglia ... Jean Roseme of Rep. Frederica Wilson’s office … (Sunday) Rep. Frederica Wilson … David Johnson, Republican political consultant

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