Florida’s unusual (or boring?) presidential primary set for next week

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican, are headed for a rematch in the 2024 presidential election. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Florida is holding a presidential preference primary election next Tuesday, though it doesn’t really feel like it.

Start with the fact that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump already clinched their respective party nominations for president on Tuesday night after scoring additional primary wins in a handful of states around the country.

And while there are seven candidates listed on the GOP presidential ballot, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s departure from the race last week meant there was no active campaign in the Sunshine State leading into the contest.

But while the stakes are virtually nonexistent now, at least registered Republican Florida voters can exercise their right to vote if they want to.

Registered Florida Democratic voters don’t even have that option.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Feb. 8, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

The Florida Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee met last October and voted to place only President Joe Biden on its primary ballot, even though there were other candidates opposing him in the race at the time.

Criticism ensued, but the party stood firmly behind its decision. And in January a federal judge rejected a legal complaint from a Tampa Democrat that the decision had violated his constitutional rights as a voter.

Because Florida election law says that if a political party has only one presidential candidate, that candidate’s name will not be placed on the ballot. Therefore, there won’t be any Democratic election at all.

There’s no Democratic primary?

Some Democrats tell the Phoenix that they’re unhappy that there’s not a primary, because they say it robs them of its ability to show their displeasure towards the president – in part because of his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I didn’t even realize that there wouldn’t be a Florida (Democratic) presidential primary election,” Chaize Harrell told the Phoenix earlier this week. The 25-year-old St. Petersburg resident says he was hoping to write-in a candidate for the Democratic nomination, “either ‘uncommitted’ or AOC (U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) or (U.S. Sen.) Bernie Sanders, but definitely not Joe Biden.”

“Uncommitted” or “No Preference” is not an option for Florida voters, unlike other Democratic primaries that have taken place this year.

That’s where there’s been an organized movement for critics of the president to express their disappointment with his performance, as opposed to voting for other Democrats in the race — Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips and New Age author Marianne Williamson (Phillips exited the race last week).

“Since there is no ‘uncommitted’ option even if we had a primary here in Florida, I’d probably write somebody in,” says Jamie Kidder, 35, who has been an active member of the Pinellas County Democratic Party since he graduated from high school.  “Biden’s approval ratings are pretty low, and I’d like to see the party go in another direction.”

Some young Democratic-leaning voters are also down on the president regarding his efforts on cancelling student debt.  The U.S. Supreme Court last year blocked his plan last year to cancel up to $400 billion in student loans — but he’s still been able to save millions of borrowers. Biden announced last October he had cancelled $127 billion in student debts for 3.6 million borrowers since he was elected in 2020.

“I’m definitely used to being disappointed by the Democratic Party from time-to-time, because it kind of feels like my only option in terms of the two-party system,” says Tampa resident Cat Champion, 27. But she adds that, “I’d definitely be voting Biden if that is the choice” against Trump in November.

Only Biden’s name

Members of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) scoff at the notion that there is anything remotely controversial or nefarious about their decision to place only Biden’s name on the primary ballot.

“No other candidate made a reasonable attempt to sway the Democratic Party,” says Sarasota County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Daniel Kuether. “This demonstrates the united support behind the Biden-Harris ticket.”

“The rules say if you don’t have a primary challenger, you win by default, the primary. So, I’m okay with not breaking the rules,” adds Angela Birdsong, the president of the Hillsborough County Democratic Black Caucus.

Members of the FDP have also cited historical precedence of only listing Biden on the Democratic presidential primary ballot: The last two times a Democratic incumbent president was running for reelection in Florida, the party eschewed primary elections for Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012.

Yet Matthew Isbell, a data consultant who primarily works with Democratic candidates, says he would have gone in a different direction that the party chose to do this year.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

“If it had been up to me, I would have said have a primary anyway, because of the sort of situation where people are upset,” he says. “Granted, it’s a small group of people, but even if you try to explain, ‘this is the way it’s always been’, then the answer comes back, ‘well, who cares how it’s always been. We want to vote.’”

Isbell also says that as a data scientist, he’s disappointed he won’t be able to study where the protest votes against Biden would have come from.

“That would have been interesting, to see the stuff from the [college] campuses, but the real area where you would have seen large protests were going to be in those rural, North Florida counties because we’re still a closed primary state and you would have had a lot of old Dixiecrats that would have been coming out and voting for Phillips or somebody else,” he says.

Michael Steinberg, the Tampa-based attorney and former Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee Chair who took the Florida Democratic Party to federal court earlier this year challenging the party’s decision not to hold a primary, tells the Phoenix his motivation to go to court was to ensure that a similar situation doesn’t happen in the future.

“I am going to support Joe Biden 100%, now that he is the presumptive nominee,” Steinberg said this week. “The lawsuit was really about the fact that the Democratic Party did not follow their own rules and denied the voters the opportunity to choose between qualified candidates.”

Florida is not the only state in a Democratic Party to submit only Biden’s name for inclusion on their primary ballot. North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and Delaware’s Democratic parties also opted only to put Biden’s name into consideration, but North Carolina and Tennessee offered Democratic voters the choice of voting for “No Preference,” and “Uncommitted,” respectively, whereas Delaware joins Florida in not holding an election.

Biden vs. Trump

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center on Feb. 24, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

This is hardly the first presidential primary election in Florida where there is little at stake on both sides of the aisle.

Unlike the halcyon days, Florida is no longer at the center of the political universe when it comes to deciding presidential elections.

Following his State of the Union address last week, President Biden has taken to the road this week to campaign in essential swing states like Georgia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan – but not the Sunshine State.

Isbell says that he doesn’t expect there to be much interest in the GOP primary next week, but also believes “there’s a lot of Trump people who are going to show up to cement their support for him.”

Top Florida Republicans agree.

“Obviously there is going to be lower turnout than we see in a competitive primary, but we have had a healthy turnout in early and VBM (vote-by-mail) so I expect a decent turnout on Election Day,” says Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power.

Lake County Republican Executive Committee Chair Anthony Sabatini concurs.

“Absolutely,” he says about whether there is enthusiasm about the race. “You’re still gonna see a very strong turnout.”

“There’s definitely excitement,” adds James Stratton, the president of the Tampa Bay Trump Club. The organization continues to get “a minimum” of 100 people who attend monthly meetings at a Clearwater-based restaurant, he says.

“Yeah, he’s already got the nomination, but we’re going to vote for him,” Stratton says about Trump.

Not every Republican is convinced that turnout will be robust next week, however.

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem that it’s that big of a deal,” says Cliff Gephart, the owner of Conservative Grounds, a Trump-themed coffee shop based in Pinellas County. However, he says he’ll vote next week, if for no other reason to maintain his status as a “super voter.”

In addition to Trump, the other GOP candidates on next week’s ballot include Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ryan L. Binkley.

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