The Biden-Trump Rematch, Presidential Choices & Florida’s Moolah - Top 3 Takeaways – March 12th, 2024
- Today’s the day. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are inextricably linked. That’s true because they’re both United States presidents. It’s true because they faced off in a presidential election together. It’s true because they’ll do so again. In fact, the two are so inextricably linked that they’ll both clinch their party’s nomination for President of the United States this time around on the same day. Today. 136 - That’s the number of pledged delegates Donald Trump needs to win in order to clinch the Republican nomination for president. 111 – that's the number of pledged delegates Joe Biden needs to clinch his party’s nomination. There are a total of 161 pledged delegates up for grabs in the Republican nomination for president today and 254 pledged delegates available for Democrats. Even if Trump only won delegates at the pace he’d been winning them with when he had competition, which he no longer does, he’d clinch his party’s nomination. And as for Joe, Georgia alone, which is only one of five Democrat contests in play today, nearly has the remaining delegates he needs. For the better part of a year, we’ve been told that this is the rematch most Americans don’t want. But by this time tomorrow voters will have decided that it’s the rematch we’ll have in November. But if you want a different choice for president...
- You’ll have a different choice for president. On Friday, No Labels announced they would be moving forward with running a presidential candidate this year on a Unity ticket (comprised of a presidential candidate from one party and a vice presidential candidate from the other party). On Thursday, No Labels will announce their process for selecting their ticket’s candidates. Already No Labels has qualified for presidential ballot access in 14 states, including Florida. Aside from Florida, other notable battleground states they’ve already qualified in include Arizona, Maine, Nevada and North Carolina. They’re currently working to be on all 50 state ballots and have a plan and the financing to potentially be able to do so. In a recent op ed in the Dallas Morning News No Labels said there are four ingredients to an independent candidate winning the presidency. Those ingredients: 1) Voters to have an indisputable appetite for a third choice 2) Ballot Access 3) A unifying message 4) An exceptional leader. It remains to be seen who they identify as “an exceptional leader” who’s willing to run in the presidential race on their platform’s ticket but it has the potential to shake up the presidential race. And No Labels likely isn’t alone. RFK Jr’s independent bid for president has qualified for ballot access in four states, including a battleground state in Nevada, and he’s on the precipice of qualifying in Georgia, Arizona and South Carolina. But as RFK has started to reach resistance in qualifying in other states, the most recent word is that he’s considering running as the Libertarian candidate for president. The Libertarian Party has already qualified for presidential ballot access in 35 states, including most of the traditional battle grounds. The Libertarian Party’s convention will take place in late May. Still want more choices? You’ll probably get them. There’s also the eventual Green Party candidate (to be determined in their July convention) who’s already qualified for ballot access in 20 states – including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Political candidates will often talk about “choice” elections. This presidential election cycle figures to have the most choices we’ve had in modern political history. So, we’ll have a rematch of the two major political party candidates, but also what appears to be the most concerted third-party efforts to win the election since Ross Perot pulled in 19% of the vote in 1992. President’s Biden and Trump are inextricably linked but voters that don’t want to be linked to either of them in November will have a choice, and in most states, it’ll likely be several.
- Florida’s #1 for paychecks. At 3.1% Florida has one of the lowest unemployment rates of any state (and easily the lowest unemployment rate of any large rate). But that’s not where Florida’s number one. Since the onset of the pandemic Florida’s been #1 for net migration, #1 for real-estate appreciation, #1 for job growth but also #1 for wage growth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their latest state-by-state breakout of employment data, and the drop came with this additional bit of news. No state has increased its share of the total national wages over the past four years by more than Florida. Leading the country in job growth for several years is great. Leading the country in total wage growth is even better. Florida’s total share of national wages has never been higher. Related, from the most recent ADP Report, Florida’s wage growth over the past year has paced 5.6% - a growth rate that’s ten percent faster than the national average. So yes, over the past four years Florida is number for jobs, but we’re also number one for wage growth, and we’re number one for the growth in the share of our state’s earnings. It’s no wonder Florida’s economy continues to flourish. It’s been five years since another state outperformed the Free State of Florida economically.