Biden campaign chief: Trump 'owns every single cruel' abortion ban in the United States

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign went on a blitz Tuesday to put Donald Trump on notice that his home state's "cruel" abortion laws put crimson-red Florida "in play" this November.

The full-court press, including a new campaign commercial, followed seismic abortion rulings on Monday by the Florida Supreme Court, including one that essentially told voters to overturn the bans at the ballot box if they disagree.

The justices validated an initial 15-week abortion ban and paved the way for an even more restrictive six-week prohibition approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. In the other, the justices said yes to the placement of a constitutional amendment to overturn the new restrictions and protect reproductive rights from Pensacola to Key West.

"We definitely see Florida in play," said Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

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In Michigan, Trump said after being asked if he supported the six-week abortion ban in Florida that he would issue a statement on the hot-button issue next week.

Democrats, in concert, have blasted the abortion restrictions cleared by the high court and called on Floridians to speak loudly in casting ballots this November.

On Tuesday, Rodriguez pinned the restrictions on abortion decision-making by women, in the wake of the 1973 Roe v. Wade overturn, on the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee.

"Donald Trump brags about being the one to overturn Roe. He owns every single cruel ban in the country. He solely owns this," she said of laws to ban abortions after six weeks in pregnancy, plus constraints on IVF treatments and curtailment of access to contraceptives in other states.

She added: "These are extreme positions and policies that voters have continued to reject time and time again."

Rodriguez said the abortion issue also speaks to larger issues of personal freedoms, including book bans. Coupled with the Biden administration delivering on infrastructure funding — $19 billion earmarked for Florida — and a reduction in prices for insulin and other medications, it gives the president "a strong agenda to run on" even in Trump's home state, which conventional wisdom said is a lock for the GOP ticket in 2024.

"So we're going to compete and we're going to make sure that Donald Trump has to compete in the state of Florida," she said.

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The state's Republican leadership, however, was not daunted and predicted the abortion ballot item, known as Amendment 4, will be defeated at the ballot box.

"Amendment 4 would make FL’s abortion laws more liberal than countries throughout Europe and eliminate existing laws that most people on both sides of the abortion issue agree on — like parental consent for minors and any restrictions on late-term abortions," Florida House Speaker Paul Renner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "We are confident that when the people of Florida learn what this amendment does, they will vote NO on Amendment 4."

The Republican Party of Florida was equally caustic toward the abortion proposal as well, and sought to turn the attention back to an issue polls show is far more favorable to Trump, immigration.

"Biden is REFUSING to reverse his executive actions and end the border crisis he created," the state GOP posted on social media. "President Trump will end the crisis and SECURE THE BORDER."

Decidedly in the former president's favor, and Republican candidates this November, is the voter registration trend.

As of Feb. 29, the GOP has 5.21 million voters, outnumbering the Democrats' 4.3 million by 855,701. In 2020, when Trump beat Biden in Florida by a comfortable 3.4 percentage points, Democrats still counted nearly 100,000 more Florida voters than their rival Republicans.

History also is a bad omen. Trump won Florida in both of his previous White House campaigns. And DeSantis and the GOP statewide slate in 2022, including incumbent U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, trounced their Democratic opponents by landslide totals in that year's midterm election.

In the wake of that rout, in which Republicans carried the blue bastions of Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, pundits and others across the country have ceased to describe Florida as a battleground or a swing state.

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Luzmarina Garcia, assistant professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, said a poll the university conducted a year ago showed 17% of voters ranked abortion as the issue of most concern to them. That percentage point ranked second to the economy at 38%.

"At that time it was a very salient issue," "I have a feeling that when it comes to Florida voters now, these rulings make it salient once again. I think it's going to make individuals want to come to the polls."

Judging by the poll last year, Garcia said, the amendment on the ballot will be "useful for Democrats in particular" by prompting stronger turnout since 31.1% of them cited abortion as their top issue while just 3.9% of Republicans said the same.

Garcia, however, did acknowledge the amendment on the ballot could allow conservative-leaning independents to cast votes for the amendment and still support GOP candidates.

"It could go either way and we're still a little bit of a ways out," she said. "But the idea is that if you're seeing this as the most important issue out of all the issues we listed you might be voting that way. If it's not the economy driving some of these voters, it's going to be abortion. And now that abortion is becoming salient with this particular case in Florida I think the democrats are going to be stepping up."

The emboldened talk by the Biden team follows what has been — at best — a low-key public effort in Florida. The president has ventured to the state in times of emergency, after hurricanes and a building collapse in Surfside, and for fundraising.

At one money-generating event in Jupiter at the start of the year, Biden said he wanted to win Florida — but only in passing — during in a 20-minute speech. After the event, local Democratic Party officials said their ambitions for 2024 were more local — winning a commission district seat and two statehouse races.

The tune has changed, thanks to the justices on the state high court.

Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, also pointed out Amendment 4 will generate voter enthusiasm. She noted that the process to place the citizen-driven measure before voters required the submission of more than 1 million petitions signed by voters supporting the proposal.

"The overwhelming majority of Floridians think that we should all have the freedom to make our own personal health care decisions without interference from the government," she said. "This is a big deal for Floridians. It's a big deal that they were able to even meet that procedural hurdle. It's not really a Democratic issue. It's not really a Republican issue. It's more about the people of Florida."

Rodriguez says Democrats see reason to believe they can make a run for the state's 30 Electoral College votes, the U.S. Senate seat held by Rick Scott and other down-ballot contests.

The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, she said, has raised enough money to be able to invest even in a state like Florida that has not been deemed winnable for Democrats — in contrast to Trump's seemingly lackluster fundraising results and mounting legal fees owing to criminal and civil actions against him.

In a statement last month, the Biden-Harris campaign noted the $20 million Trump reportedly raised in February was less than half the $53 million the president's reelection effort netted last month, including $10 million in 24 hours after Biden's State of the Union Address in March. And they said Trump had less than $42 million in cash, while they had access to $155 million.

She also cited the ability of Democrats to win the Jacksonville mayor's race in 2023 plus flipping a formerly red Florida House district in a January special election.

"The empirical evidence suggests that we have a good shot for this," she said.

The campaign also will remind Florida voters of Scott's proposal from 2022 to sunset all federal programs, including Social Security and Medicare, if they are not reauthorized by Congress every five years.

Scott ultimately revised his plan, exempting Social Security, Medicare, the Veterans Administration, and national defense and security. That was after Biden mentioned Scott's plan in Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address.

Still, Rodriguez acknowledged it's still an uphill fight of sorts in Florida.

"We're clear-eyed about how hard it will be to win Florida," she said. "But we also know that Trump does not have it in the bag."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Joe Biden campaign chief said Florida 'in play' in 2024 election