With less than a week until Election Day, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is campaigning in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday, shoring up LGBTQ voters for Joe Biden.
The Biden campaign is courting LGBTQ voters. One of the rallies being held by Buttigieg is called Pride at the Polls, and it's mobilizing the gay community in the Tampa Bay area to vote.
Voters in the LGBTQ community make up a crucial voting bloc. About 9 million LGBTQ adults in the United States are eligible to vote. In key battleground states like Florida, LGBTQ voters can play a significant role in the outcome of the election.
“A group that’s quietly ascending in its importance in Florida politics. You can tell a little bit about it by the number of registrants who are refusing to choose the two-category gender in their registration, they pick ‘other.’ That’s exemplary of how the whole notion about gender and LGBTQ are being reformulated,” explained Dr. Susan MacManus, ABC Action News political analyst.
The Trump campaign has positioned the president as a friend to the gay community.
Two other vital groups of voters in this election are Latinos and African Americans.
"America has become more and more diverse and when you look at our country, we’re a nation where the older population is white and the younger population is much more diverse. You have to speak to that diversity in the emerging electorate,” said Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida.
Trump’s campaign is increasingly confident that his support is growing with Latino voters. Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign is making an effort to shore up support among African Americans, older voters and suburbanites.
