Florida Presidential Primary Preview
Bottom Line: This is anything but your typical Presidential Primary day in Florida. We’ll be voting today along with two other states, although Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have postponed their elections on back of the coronavirus concerns. Over a million votes have already been received by the state through early and absentee ballots. The question will be what turnout may look like today. Supervisors of Elections across the state have added additional hygiene options at polling places such as wipes and sanitizer and we’ll see where the final votes will take us. Florida could prove to be a decisive moment in this Election Cycle. Joe Biden is leading but he still isn’t winning. That’s because he still isn’t pacing greater than 50% of the pledged delegates which are required to win without a contested convention.That could, and likely will, change with Florida voting today. In 2016 Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by 31%. It’s likely to be a similar fate for Bernie today.
Here’s where the candidates stand in pledged delegates coming into today.
- Biden: 894
- Sanders: 744
- Gabbard: 2
1990.5 pledged delegates are needed to win the nomination. Biden has won at a pace, 49.4%,that would leave him 24 pledged delegates short. So, for Joe – it's not just about winning. It is about winning big. Size matters and Florida is his opportunity to finally go from leading to winning.
So, what’s likely to happen? In an average of the most recent polling here’s the scorecard in the states that are set to vote today including ours:
- Biden: 56%
- Sanders: 32%
- Gabbard: 2%
Will Biden win big? Will it be big enough to get him on pace to win outright? What will turnout be? It should be interesting... Until tomorrow.