As The Who once sang: “Talkin’ abput my generation.” And what you’re about to see is probably one of the most unbelievable scenes from the first week of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
On Saturday, several hundred golf carts paraded through the streets of The Villages — one of the largest over-55 communities in the U.S. -- in an enthusiastic display of support for Kamala.
The Villages has long been considered a conservative stronghold where Donald Trump supporters have held their own golf cart rallies in previous campaigns. In the 2020 election. Trump carried the precincts in The Villages in the 2020 presidential election by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
But now retirement communities are filling up with people in their 70s who came of age in the Sixties. And it’s hard to say what kind of impact this demographic change will have.
The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper wrote that the golf cart caravan in The Villages was just part of a series of events held across the state organized by the Harris campaign and the Florida Democratic Party in cities from Pensacola to Miami that included a series of training sessions, phone banks, and even an ice cream social. The Harris campaign hopes to mobilize the thousands of volunteers who have stepped forward since Kamala launched her candidacy a week ago.
It will be an uphill battle to flip the state and its 30 electoral votes into the Harris column. The FiveThirtyEight website shows Trump with an 8-point lead in Florida. But while there are more registered Republicans than Democrats in the state, nearly 30% of Florida voters are not affiliated with either party, the newspaper said.
“We are working for every vote in this state ... it’s one we are determined to win,” Jasmine Burney Clark, director of the Harris campaign in Florida, told The Tallahassee Democrat.
And the enthusiasm and energy shown by Harris supporters in their golf carts on Saturday is a hopeful sign.
Barbie Harden Hall, the Democratic candidate in Florida’s 11th C.D. which includes The Villages, spoke at the rally. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she wrote.
My mind is still blown from today. For reference, this isn’t even HALF of the total golf carts that participated. Believe me, this is a BFD!
Her post had received 1.4 million views by Sunday morning.
Now I always like to go to local news reports to get a feel for an event. And here’s how the senior community’s website, Villages-News, began its report on Saturday’s golf cart rally.
You don’t have to fall out of a coconut tree to see that it’s Brat summer for Village Democrats supporting Kamala Harris.
Hundreds of golf carts showed up Saturday afternoon at Lake Sumter Landing to support the newly-named candidate for president. They created a traffic jam around the streets near the Barnes & Noble parking lot.
Harris has energized more than young people. On this scorching July afternoon, instead of Beyonce’, Cardi B or Charli XCX, the air was filled with the music of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
What would you expect in one of the largest over-55 communities in the nation?
“Young people are energized and so are we,” said Villager Joyce Wiegand. “I’m really glad she does appeal to young people, because they’ve been marginalized in voting for years,” added her friend Karen Wink.
“It’s time for young people to get involved in democracy. Kamala isn’t just for young people, she’s for all of us. She supports Social Security, Medicare and health care. That matters to us.”
And the report also included this video from the event.
And here are quotes from some of the rally goers as reported by Villages-News.
Diane Ruggiero, who described herself as a moderate Republican, said:
“It’s nice to see her bring such energy to young people, but Kamala is not just for the young. She gives us all hope.”
She added: “She is someone to be positive about. I’m tired of all the negativity —who we don’t want and who we don’t like. Now we have someone to like and be happy and excited about.”
Tracy Carpenter, a female Black Villager, said, ““It means so much to our democracy to have a woman of color running for president, Joe Biden believes in democracy and he put his country over himself to support Kamala. She was the best choice; she will win, and we will show the world that the United States can be united.”
Villager Ira Friedman, 81, who was in a cart with his wife Ellen, said: “I’m here for my children and grand-children. The Brooklyn-native added: ”Kamala is eloquent, but she’s also a tough woman. A tough woman is a turn on for me. My wife is a tough women.”
And he said it doesn’t matter to him that Kamala is a woman of color: “Kamala is smart; look, she married a Jewish man (Doug Emhoff). Anybody who marries a Jewish guy is smart.”
And the Villages Democratic Club posted their own video of the golf cart rally on YouTube.
The golf cart rally in The Villages was part of a larger “100 days of action weekend," with more than 36 events across the state, which aims to build support for the Democratic Party in Florida and mobilize volunteers, The Tallahassee Democrat reported,
In 2012, President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win Florida. The last Democrat to win a statewide election is Nikki Fried, who won the Agriculture Commissioner's race in 2018. She is now head of the Florida Democratic Party.
Kamala acknowledged the grassroots initiative in Florida in a post on Saturday.
Day One of our 100 Days Out Weekend of Action made it clear: This is a people-powered campaign.I am grateful to those of you who knocked doors, made calls, donated, and even decorated your golf carts.
And this post from Kamala Wins, which describes itself as the largest online community community supporting soon to be President Kamala Harris, had received 3.5 million views by Sunday morning..
BREAKING: The villages in Florida, typically dominated by MAGA extremists, have been completely taken over by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. This is a remarkable turnaround. Retweet so all Americans see this campaign’s energy and enthusiasm
