On the heels of what may have been the Democrats' biggest high at their convention thus far, those who spoke at the Florida Democratic Party's breakfast today drew dramatic contrasts between themselves and the Republicans who set a dark tone at their convention last week.
Among them was a fired-up Bob Buckhorn. The Tampa mayor has long been a passionate backer of Dem nominee Hillary Clinton, and he seemed to strike a chord with the audience in playing up the differences between Republicans and Democrats.
“I could not believe what I had heard the week before, about this dark time in America, about how we're pitting one American against [another]," he said."About this place where, instead of encouraging people to be here, we're going to send them home, Americans. Where we're going to demonize people based on their religion. That's not America.”
It was pretty easy, he said, for Floridians to draw a parallel between the specter of a Trump presidency and the reality of a Rick Scott governorship.
“We know what it's like to elect a tea party millionaire. We know what it's like to reject $3 billion in rail money [that] could have provided thousands of jobs and a rail system from Orlando to Tampa. We know what it's like to have a governor that doesn't know the difference between toxic green algae and guacamole. We know what it's like to turn away hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid money that would serve thousands of us. We know what it's like to have a government that pays more attention to Marion Hammer than to Mother Theresa.”
Buckhorn, who is among Florida Democrats who may run for governor in 2018, got a standing ovation for his comments.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. Senator, empathized with those gathered; after all, her state, Wisconsin, is home to Governor Scott Walker, a tea party governor with very similar policies as Scott.
The 2010 tea party wave that swept those two governors into office, she said, “feels very much a preview of this national election.”
She said Trump is “Scott Walker with a spray tan.”
Others urged the importance of down-ballot races, such as the U.S. Senate race in which Republican Sen./would-be presidential hopeful Marco Rubio is seeking reelection (and going out of state to raise money for? Wait no, that's his 2020 presidential run) as well as Congressional and legislative races that could turn blue with enough turnout.
Congressman from Florida Ted Deutsch said it's stupefying that Trump is the GOP's choice, especially given that the the billionaire reality show star would be given the nuclear codes.
"I think I'd be more comfortable giving them to Kim Kardashian than Donald Trump," Deutsch said.
Before the breakfast was scheduled to start, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine paid a surprise visit to the room (as Sen. Bernie Sanders had the day before).
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2016.