Presidential candidates bring two different campaign styles to Florida
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The two major campaigns for president clashed in Florida are on entirely different kinds of battlegrounds.
President Donald Trump held a rally at an airport hangar in Jacksonville, which was attended by thousands of people.
"What a crowd," he said.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign held a virtual meet-up online.
"This is the like a family reunion," the event host said.
RELATED: Voting in Florida 2020: Tampa Bay area election guide
They do agree on two things:
One, that the election is the most important in American history.
"We hear over and over, this is the most important election," said Biden campaign surrogate, Stacey Abrams. "This time it is true."
Two, that Florida is close.
"The only poll that matters is November 3rd," President Trump said.
Fact vs fiction: Vote-by-mail in Florida
More voters are casting ballots by mail so far in this month’s primary and a University of Florida poll shows more than 60-percent plan to vote by mail in the November election. But we ‘re getting a lot of questions about the process and concerns about security.
The Biden campaign, in the age of COVID, is rallying support by having bigwigs, like Former Sen. Bill Nelson, calling volunteers who have been organizing for the former vice president.
"This is no foolin' time," he said on one call.
The RealClearPolitics.com polling average shows Biden ahead by 1.3 points. Democrats said they have built up a historically-large vote-by-mail request lead of over 700,000.
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Republicans argue they have been successful in registering many more new voters. They also hope the media attention the president's rallies get will make his 1.2 percent statewide win last time a reality again.
He called Biden beholden to those more left-wing than he.
"The Democrat (sic) party has been completely taken over by socialist and far-left extremist," he said.
RELATED: Vote by mail in Florida primary already far exceeds 2016
The Biden campaign Thursday night insisted Trump lied about the severity of the coronavirus.
"More than 13,000 of your fellow citizens have perished," said Abrams. "They did so under the watch of a president who lied to us about what was at stake."
What to know about voting by mail in Florida
While the president has criticized voting by mail in other states, he says it’s safe and secure in Florida. As do Democrats and Republicans, as do election supervisors across the state. But there are some issues that can affect your vote – issues that did affect around 1.5 percent of the votes in the August primary.
The former vice president was not a part of tonight's virtual meet-up because he is preparing for next week's debate with the president.
The president has long predicted that Biden won't be capable of putting on a good performance.
The debate is being hosted on Fox News by Chris Wallace on Tuesday Sept. 29, and will be held in Cleveland.