Clinton, Trump campaign with Florida Gov. candidates

Two weeks away from Election Day, we've been talking a little bit about politics, and I want to talk a little bit more about it, because we've got some big players coming to Florida just in the next few days who are taking part of the campaign trail in some of these high-profile races. So tonight, we know David Jolly, the Democratic candidate for governor, is going to be joined by former President Bill Clinton at an event in South Florida. We are also learning some new details about President Trump, who's expected to make a visit to Fort Myers in just a few days as well as trying to really kind of gather Republican enthusiasm to make sure GOP voters turn out to the polls coming up on November 3rd or maybe vote early. So this is all part of that push. We've seen the president attending a number of midterm rallies, hosting a number of midterm rallies across the country. I believe he was just in Wichita, Kansas just yesterday. So a list still of places that he's going to go. Fox 35's Johnny Jackson had the chance to speak with UCF political science lecturer John Hanley about this, about why we're seeing this, about why these specific areas that these campaign surrogates are going, including former and current presidents. So kind of taking us inside the politics of these decisions and what impact, if any, things like this could have on the upcoming midterm election? Well, I think, you know, the former presidents, they have competing demands on their time. They don't necessarily want to get too involved in politics and be hooked to a particular candidate or outcome. But an event like this, for someone like David Jolly, for Clinton to come, I don't think he's putting too much on the line given that he's not doing tons of these events. And this is relatively separated from the election. It's still two weeks away. So it's not quite the same as, say, Barack Obama were to come the weekend before. And what does President Clinton bring, especially to South Florida, that is unique about him? Well, I think Clinton, you know, there are two positive elements for him. One is if you're looking at older voters, you know, in South Florida, particularly who might be alienated with the Democratic Party over its leftward lurch, Then Bill Clinton rekindles an image of the Democratic Party that's more moderate and that connects with 1990s values around fiscal conservatism, moderate Democrats, and economic growth. So that's a positive for Clinton. Right, the second positive, the Clintons, very well liked among African Americans. If you're worried about losing African American voters to Byron Donalds, then this might be a way to shore up some of that African American support. And what are some of the, I guess, risks or potential drawbacks to bringing President Clinton out? Well, on the other hand, there are huge negative risks involved with Clinton, right? One is that the image of Clinton, including in the Democratic Party, has been tarnished over the past 25 years. The scandals around Monica Lewinsky and so forth hit harder, I think, than they did at that time period and for different reasons. There are Epstein connections that the Republicans will probably mention in relation to Clinton. So that makes it difficult. Also, I think it's pretty clear that Clinton has lost a step. He's had heart attacks and is considerably older. So he's not necessarily as sharp as a Democrat would hope that he doesn't say something off script or that might make trouble for your campaign if you're David Jolly. If you are David Jolly at this point, with Republicans having a voter registration advantage, what kind of vibe does this signal for his campaign in the closing weeks? I think it's definitely taking a shot. You're down, so you can take some risks. But it does connect with someone who's being viewed as a more moderate Democrat, who is viewed as someone who connects with older voters. Younger voters are not going to really connect as much with Bill Clinton. Because if you're a 35-year-old Democrat, Bill Clinton was 10 or so, or you were 10 when Bill Clinton left office. And so that's not the same kind of connection that you're going to feel relative to someone like Barack Obama. Clinton might seem kind of old. So for David Jolly to be doing this kind of makes sense, but it's not without risk. And so that's what you do when you're down. On the other side of the ticket, we have President Trump in Fort Myers. What can voters expect from that? I think we see lots of these Trump rallies. Trump is a regular presence on the campaign trail going to campaign for Republicans all over the place. He's definitely putting himself into this race and putting his reputation on the line a little bit. So we can maybe assess where Trump is now, what kinds of crowds he sees, whether the vibe there is like that of 2024 or 2016. So there might be some question marks that are associated with that for sure. And what kind of sway does President Trump have in South Florida and Fort Myers at this point? But I think there's certainly a Trump vote, more blue collar, less associated with the Republican Party as an organization. Those voters who came out to vote for him, in many cases three times, they have been less likely to vote in these off cycle elections. the congressional elections 2018, 2022, now 2026. So if he can rally those voters, if he can encourage them to turn out, then that's a big win for Donald and for the Republicans. And then at the same time, what are some of the risks associated with President Trump trying to put his thumb on the scale in this race? Well, I think those risks are somewhat muted in Florida, because Florida has consistently shown itself to be pretty pro-Trump. Additionally, he's better known on the campaign trail. So even if he says stuff that's off script or controversial, it doesn't really carry the same shock value that you would see if Bill Clinton were to say something strange or offensive. That would probably rocket up to the top of the news much more quickly than Donald Trump because his persona and his record is just so different at this point. So I don't see a lot of negatives for Donald's or for Trump in this visit. When undecided voters are potentially checking into Jolly and Clinton today or Trump than Donald's Friday, what are some things they should be looking out for in both of these events? Well, I think you wanna see how the outside speakers, as it were, how these presidents and former presidents are being used. What messages are they trying to deliver? For Bill Clinton, is it going to be a heavily economic message? Is it going to therefore key on some of the Democratic messages over the past 30, 40 years? Or is it going to be more of a partisan message? For Trump, it might be interesting to see the language that he uses to describe Donald's Or whether he's in some ways hedging on what the result is going to be. Is he expressing confidence that Donald's is going to win? Or is he mixing that with criticism in the way that we've seen some of these events with Ken Paxton out in Texas, where the president gets up and he says some positive things and criticizes the Democrats, but he's also kind of taking shots at the candidate. And so if that happens and that might not be as positive, it might send a different message than if he's just all on board for Donald's.