Making their last minute appeals, the presidential candidates entered the home sprint as the Florida primary looms on Tuesday.
Routing U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in all the polls of the Sunshine State, former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton looked to nail down Florida Democrats as she unleashed two new Spanish language ads on Friday.
Clinton’s new TV ad is running in Miami, Orlando and Tampa and focuses on her work on children’s health-care, support of immigration reform and more access to college education. The new radio spot, which is on the air in Orlando and Tampa, also focuses on education while also highlighting Clinton’s take on the Puerto Rican debt situation.
On the Republican side, after the debate between the four remaining GOP contenders on Thursday night at the University of Miami, businessman Donald Trump, who is leading the polls in Florida, appeared alongside a former rival in South Florida as Dr. Ben Carson endorsed his candidacy.
“We’ve buried the hatchet,” Carson said on Friday morning, insisting Trump is “very cerebral" and “considers things very carefully."
“That's the Donald Trump that you're going to start seeing more and more of,” Carson said.
The former candidate, who battled Trump for the lead of the polls back in the fall, also took to social media to praise his old rival.
“Many people fight for change in DC,” Carson posted on Twitter. “Donald Trump is a leader with an outsider’s perspective & the vision, guts & energy to get it done.”
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) took aim at the endorsement on Friday morning.
“For Donald Trump to accept the endorsement of Ben Carson, whom he previously derided as having a ‘pathological disease’ is just another glaring example of the say-anything incoherence of Trump’s campaign,” said Mark Paustenbach, a spokesman for the DNC. “It shows how erratic and inconsistent he’s been, not just on the endorsements he accepts, but on issues ranging from national security and the use of ground troops to immigration and tax policy.”
Trump wasn’t the only Republican presidential hopeful to have an old rival in his corner on Friday. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was in Orlando for an event with businesswoman Carly Fiorina, the former presidential hopeful who threw her support to him earlier this week, and conservative pundit Sean Hannity. Cruz is running in third in the Florida polls, behind Trump and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is also ramping up operations as he looks to rebound on his home turf. Rubio had former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., who ended his presidential bid after a poor showing in Iowa, rallying supporters in Jacksonville on Thursday night.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
