Biden campaign opens Hillsborough office, says it’s serious about Florida

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign gave another indication Thursday that it’s serious about winning Florida.

The campaign announced that it will open a field office in Hillsborough County — its first in the state. The announcement comes on the heels of a presidential visit earlier this week to Tampa, where the president bashed his opponent, former President Donald Trump, for his stance on abortion. And it comes a day after the campaign announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Jacksonville next week.

“Florida is ground zero in the fight for our rights and fundamental freedoms, and we’re not taking anything for granted,” the campaign’s Florida director, Jasmine Burney-Clark, said in a statement.

The Biden campaign also has offices in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, a campaign spokesperson said — with more to come. The campaign did not specify where in Hillsborough County this Florida office will be.

Biden lost Florida to Trump in 2020 by about 372,000 votes — 3 percentage points. But the state, which is famously expensive to win because of its numerous television advertising markets, may have served an important function for Biden in that election despite the loss.

Combined, Trump and Biden and their allies spent more than $250 million on Florida, National Public Radio reported at the time. Although Biden lost there, Trump and his allies spent nine figures to defend a state that Trump won in 2016.

This year, the Biden campaign has said it has a massive fundraising advantage over Trump, and Florida is one of the ways it plans to use it. It is also hoping voters’ support for a constitutional ballot initiative that would protect abortion rights will boost Democrats in the Sunshine State.

However, most polls show that Biden has an uphill battle in Florida. The election forecasting site FiveThirtyEight found that Trump is ahead by an average of 10 points in surveys of the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won reelection here in 2022 by 19 points, has said that the Tampa Bay region is now firmly in the hands of Republicans. The Republican voter registration advantage over Democrats sits at nearly 900,000 — and is growing.

Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, noted that the Trump campaign headquarters is based in Florida. He said the state has a strong party infrastructure that is ready to support Trump in every county.

“Biden is losing Florida in every poll. He’s losing nationally. He’s losing in the battleground states. He continues to push this notion of busywork equals campaign strategy,” Hughes said. “He can open as many offices as he wants. It doesn’t change the fact that Florida is Trump country.”