Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Democratic nominee for President Joe Biden, attended a Souls to the Polls Rally on Sunday, along with civil rights Attorney Ben Crump and the family of George Floyd.
Speaking to hundreds of Democratic supports on the porch of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, near Florida’s Capitol, Biden encouraged a last-minute turnout for her husband.
“This is it. There are no do-overs,” Biden said. “If we win here, there is no stopping us.”
The stop was the first of a three-city Florida swing on Sunday for Biden, whose husband was spending Sunday in the other crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. After Tallahassee, Jill Biden was scheduled to stop in Orlando before hosting a drive-in rally in Tampa at Hillsborough Community College at 5 p.m.
Crump and relatives of George Floyd, 46, who suffocated to death after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.
“My brother’s life, my brother’s blood, is on the ballot,” Bridget Floyd said.
Biden spoke of the racial injustice and moving on from the “chaos” of the last four years under President Donald Trump. “Our hearts are broken for every life taken too soon, and that’s especially true for the Floyd family,” she said, turning to Floyd’s brother and sister. “Joe and I often think about your family and the time we’ve been able to spend with you.”
Afterward, about 400 supporters marched to an early voting site about half a mile away at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
Democrats' turnout advantage over Republicans has shrunk considerably with nearly each day of early voting. By Sunday, two days before Election Day, that lead over Republicans was less than 100,000 voters, according to Democratic statistician Matt Isbell.
“I’m pretty confident that Souls to the Polls should generate some good African-American turnout across the state,” Isbell said.
But he said he was less concerned with turnout among Black voters, who tend to vote closer to Election Day, than he was Hispanic voters, particularly in Miami-Dade.
“They’ve got to get that Hispanic Democratic turnout down there on Election Day,” he said. “Otherwise there’s going to be pain down there for them.”