Reporter's notebook: Joe Biden came to South Florida — but it may not make a difference

City & State reporter Tristan Wood, a Broward County native, covered President Joe Biden’s visit to Hallandale Beach this week. Though he covered the event for the Wednesday edition of “First Read Florida,” our daily newsletter, here’s more of what he saw. 

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The narrow roads that flanked Hallandale Beach’s OB Johnson Park community center were blocked by large vehicles with flashing lights. Bomb dogs and government agents inspected the cars parked parallel along the road, marking them with a “V” in blue masking tape after they approved each one. People passing by got out of their cars, trying to find out what was going on.

Two men sat outside their apartment in lawn chairs, sipping beer as they watched the controlled disruption in front of them. “Joe Biden just drove by. We saw him,” one of them said, watching professionally-dressed event attendees rip the tape off their windshields to head to the next stop.

Not much earlier, the 46th president gave the first of two stump speeches during his Tuesday visit to South Florida. This event was much more intimate than his end-of-day prime time campaign stop in Miami in which he was joined by candidate for governor Charlie Crist and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, who's running for U.S. Senate.

In Hallandale, he spoke below basketball nets raised high above the audience. The only thing taller than them and the American flag banners that flanked him were the dodgeballs stuck in the rafters, long lofted up there likely by kids who couldn’t have known they were playing where a U.S. president would one day make a last-minute play to keep Florida’s midterm races competitive.

If Biden had his way, that play would have come much sooner. He had to cancel his South Florida trip twice, once because he contracted COVID-19, the next because of Hurricane Ian. 

Biden spent the most critical and energetic part of his near 30-minute speech attacking Florida’s two Republican U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, as well as other Congressional Republicans, accusing them of targeting Social Security and Medicare. His audience and the event’s location weighed heavily on his message: Seniors were overrepresented in the audience. Almost 25% of Hallandale Beach residents are 65 or older – higher than the state average of about 20%.

He began his speech soft-spoken, going through inflation price caps and other provisions passed through the Inflation Reduction Act. His energy soared when he targeted Rubio and Scott, taking aim at their votes against the act and the “12-point plan to rescue America” promoted by Scott. “They’re under siege by our Republican friends,” Biden told the crowd of under 100. “This isn’t your father’s Republican Party.”

Pamphlets outlining the plan were handed out to reporters. Biden read from one and waved it around while on stage. He specifically mentioned one of the points that would require all federal legislation to be renewed every five years or be revoked, including the laws that establish the country's social safety net. He argued that such a provision would mean Republicans would let Social Security, for instance, expire the next time they control Congress and promised to veto any such legislation that made it to his desk.

He closed out his remarks by taking one final dig at the GOP: “God bless you all, God protect our troops and God give some of our Republican friends some enlightenment.”

Florida Democrats are going to need some divine intervention of their own if they want to win races at the top of the ticket. The Real Clear Politics polling index has Rubio ahead of Democrat Val Demings by an average of 8 points. FiveThirtyEight projects Gov. Ron DeSantis up 9 points in his reelection race. Biden’s South Florida visit may have shored up the state’s blue stronghold, but it likely won’t be enough to get Florida Democrats over the line first this November.