Why Is Doug Emhoff Campaigning in The Villages, Florida?
Why Is Doug Emhoff Campaigning in The Villages, Florida?
The second gentleman and local Democrats in the largest retirement community in the country see a blue opportunity.
On a rainy afternoon, four women seated around a table in the Lake Miona Pool & Recreation Center in The Villages, Florida, went about their weekly card-playing routine, shrugging off the crowd of people, growing by the hundreds, filtering in around them.
Armed authorities and a police K-9 stood nearby monitoring the line winding out the center, around the building and into a packed parking lot.
“Who’s coming?” one of the women, who is not a Democrat, asked sarcastically then smiled and continued with the game.
It was a good question about the anticipated visit of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of the Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, traveling to The Villages for his second campaign stop of the day Friday as part of the “New Way Forward” tour.
The answer, though, was somewhat bewildering if you know anything about the strong Republican leanings in these parts. Yet, hours later when Emhoff entered a packed hall in the recreation center his answer to a crowd of about 300 inside and an estimated 300 outside was clear.
“I think we have a chance here. Do you?” Emhoff says. “We have a great chance here. We have a great chance everywhere.”
The Villages is a sprawling, age-restricted community that straddles 32 square miles in Sumter and Marion counties in Florida. It’s population, according to 2020 census figures, is just shy of 80,000. It has long been a popular election stop for politicians including presidential visits from former President George W. Bush in 2004 and former President Donald Trump in 2019.
But as soon as the Harris-Walz ticket became the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, it stirred something in this traditional Republican stronghold community. Within days, according to local organizers, the Democratic party heard from 43,000 volunteers. As a matter of fact, just four days after Biden stepped aside last month, Democrats in The Villages immediately organized a golf cart caravan that drew national attention. The occasional caravans in The Villages are typically political in nature, this time though, instead of red it was blue.
There’s an enthusiasm here for the Harris-Walz ticket, says Chair Precinct Captain Bob Berg of the Sumter Democratic Party. It’s unlike anything the community has seen since perhaps when Sumter County turned blue and helped elect former President Bill Clinton in 1996. Berg acknowledged to the crowd that it wouldn’t be easy since Republicans outnumber Democrats here 3 to 1.
The Democratic golf cart caravan last month, Berg says, was a sizable feat given that some attendees of the rally on Friday say they’ve been in hiding from their Republican friends and neighbors.
Back in the rec center, Emhoff likened the Democratic campaign upheaval to a live streaming show and offered to give the rally attendees a recap.
He reminded people that on July 21 Harris stepped up when Biden decided to end his campaign, to which the crowd chanted: “Thank you Joe!”
Not long thereafter, Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Then Emhoff noted to the audience a day he would never forget—Aug. 22.
“Why?” he asked. “Because it was my wedding anniversary.”
And, because that was the evening Harris accepted the nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention.
“She painted a vision for all of us,” he says. “A future where we all belong.”
He went on to talk about this week’s presidential debate describing the moment that his wife walked over to Trump, extended her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Kamala Harris.”
“[Trump] hated that,” Emhoff says.
Emhoff highlighted some of the differences between the two such as Trump talking about implementing more tariffs and Harris giving tax breaks to small businesses.
He criticized Trump’s “concept of a plan” for healthcare and called the former president, “physically and mentally weak, unhinged and unfit for any job.”
Emhoff says he understood why Trump didn’t want to debate his wife again, but urged him to do so.
“He should do it,” he says. “Get back in there, Donald.”
The second gentleman also spoke about his parents, who live in a similar retirement community called Sun City in California. He joked about his mother asking him, “Why aren’t you doing one of these in Sun City?”
When Emhoff arrived in The Villages, where many use designated golf cart roadways to get around, he said he got emotional because it reminded him of his dad’s golf cart, a 20-year-old model with Cadillac-like embellishments that still works.
“He’s so proud of that,” he says, adding that visits to his parents with his young children brought back memories of who would get to ride the golf cart with grandpa. “Every child learned to drive in that golf cart.”
Now, Emhoff says, when he visits his parents, they get on the same golf cart to play a round of golf followed by a visit to the billiard hall.
With 52 days left in the campaign, Emhoff talked about the possibility of his wife becoming the first female president of Black and Indian heritage and he, the first, first gentleman and presidential spouse of Jewish heritage. He went on to speak about his work as second gentleman with a national strategy to combat antisemitism and living “openly and proudly and without fear” as a Jewish man.
“None of that would have happened without the encouragement of Kamala,” he says.
The idea that the country could elect its first female president and first, first gentleman seemed like an afterthought to Berg, who says, “Strong men support strong women.”
Women in attendance immediately recognized and related to the sacrifice Emhoff made in supporting his wife. Emhoff stopped practicing law once Harris became vice president and started teaching at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to have a role model of a supportive spouse,” says resident Cindy Grossman. “He gave up something significant.”
“They are a wonderful couple. You can’t ask for a better husband,” says resident Ellyn Hayes. “I could just cry thinking about it.”
As the rally began winding down, about 350 golf carts in the parking lot began revving up. But before Emhoff stepped outside to kick off the second community-wide Democratic caravan in less than two months, he drew attention to their widening political tent with endorsements from Republican father-daughter political figures Dick and Liz Cheney, former Republican U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger from Illinois and former U.S. Congressman David Jolly from Florida’s 13th district who was in the audience of the rally.
Emhoff reminded people of the words from former First Lady Michelle Obama who during the DNC told voters instead of complaining to “do something” and that “we need to vote in numbers that erase any doubt.”
“It’s up to us,” Emhoff says.