US Election 2020: Florida, a keystone state in the crucial US elections, can become a deciding factor in determining who becomes the next US president. As seen time and over again in the past, polls in Florida, with its 29 electoral votes have always been a close test for the running president
This year too, Biden and Trump were neck and neck in Florida despite the Democrat leading in several polls.
Why is Florida so important?
Florida, a make or break state with an otherwise Democratic wave, has in past disappointed the Democrats when the party narrowly lost the governorship.
With slightly more than 15 million people in 2000, Florida’s votes decided the presidential result favouring Republicans. In the last three decades when Democrats saw a defeat, a win from Florida could have changed their fate and they would’ve taken the White House.
On the other hand, the four previous times that Democrats won, they could have easily lost Florida.
By November this year, the population has risen close to 22 million people and they’ve come from all across the country, including retirees from the Midwest, tax exiles from the Northeast, or Puerto Ricans settling down in Orlando.
Blue Florida got bluer while Red Florida has gotten redder, with conservative Democrats making a switch after decades-long loyalty. It must also be noted that the Republicans this year a more comfortable with Donald Trump than they have ever been with any Republican nominee in the past.
As a result, votes in this swing state remain extremely divisive.