“To win a presidential election, you have to win Florida, pretty much,” he said. While he lives in a strongly conservative part of Florida and worries little about his own job security come Tuesday, his vote and those of every one of his constituents remain coveted prizes for the men seeking the most powerful job in the world. Bob Rommel, a Naples Republican, enjoys the stature Florida holds in presidential politics.

In the final days of the campaign, both Trump and Biden have rallied votes in person here, sometimes appearing in the same city on the same day. Pennsylvania tops this list, having hosted 30 events, but Florida with 27 comes in a close second.

They were the same dozen states gobbling nearly all the advertising dollars. 29 that featured appearances by Biden and Trump or their respective running mates, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, a total of 158 of those took place in 12 swing states. Indeed, Trump and Biden didn’t step foot in most states this campaign season. Even if the candidate they favor is winning in their state, it’s not thanks to any effort the candidates themselves put in. The problem for democracy, Fadem says, is that if voters in lopsided states where one party holds a clear advantage are ignored by campaigns, they have no voice. Hard as it may be for Floridians to believe, there are places in the country where viewers don’t see ads for President playing every time they watch broadcast television. “This leaves the majority of the country not participating in this presidential election,” he said.Īs a California resident, that’s especially infuriating for Fadem. To Barry Fadem, president of National Popular Vote, that shows the intrinsic problem with the way the nation decides the President. The remaining spending ended up scattered in national buys and smaller states.īut the nine-fold difference in spending between Florida and neighboring Georgia, where $29 million was spent on ad time, shows the massive difference in the priority campaigns place on winning the states. Of that amount, $258 million went for ads reaching voters in the state of Florida, more than a quarter of the nationwide total.Ībout $7 for every $8 spent on ads ended up booking time in just six states: Florida, Pennsylvania ($196 million), Michigan ($109 million), Wisconsin ($102 million), North Carolina ($111 million) and Arizona ($97 million).Īnother $123 million were spent in another six states - Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa and New Hampshire. Through mid-October this year, about $1.015 billion worth of television advertising connected to the presidential election had been purchased. The group notes Florida saw a higher percentage of campaign events held and advertisements broadcast than other states.Īnd while that’s welcome news to professionals booking venues and airtime, the innate inequity of the Electoral College, a system which also significantly dilutes the significance of every voter in the state of Florida, also fuels an effort to fundamentally change the way in which America elects its President. That’s demonstrated in detail in a study by National Popular Vote, an organization that wants to see the outsized influence enjoyed here to stop. The winner-takes-all rules for awarding the state’s votes for President only increase the intensity with which Democrats and Republicans alike seek out this prize, to the marked detriment of the political class in all other states. Texas’ tight 2020 polls aside, Florida’s electoral votes for decades have had a reputation as the crown jewel of the Electoral College, the votes - 29 since the 2012 election - belonging to no party, the MacGuffin every consultant plots to steal.

That’s thanks to the esteem that comes with the Sunshine State’s enduring status as America’s eternal swing state. So too did Joe Biden events, though in more cautious fashion. Even as a throng-diffusing pandemic kept crowds from NBA games and canceled major music festivals, Donald Trump rallies moved forward. For Florida residents, traffic disruptions and campaign visits from presidential contenders come every four years as reliably as snowbirds flocking to trailer parks in the winter.

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