(dramatic ringing) - [Narrator] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

(upbeat orchestral music) - [Narrator] Next on WEDU, the Democrats close out their 2024 convention with a rousing speech by Kamala Harris.

- Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Okay, let's get to business!

Let's get to business!

(crowd cheering) All right.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] We'll hear from a Florida delegate at the convention, the primary elections were this week, and there were some setbacks for Governor DeSantis and his anti-woke campaign, and should golf courses and pickleball courts be built at Florida's much loved state parks?

All this and more, next on "Florida This Week."

(upbeat orchestral music) (upbeat orchestral music continues) - Welcome back, the Democrats raised the bar this week when it came to entertainment at presidential conventions.

They also showed the depth of their political bench.

(dramatic ringing) In what was one of the loudest and most diverse nominating conventions ever, Democrats from all 50 states, and from the island territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, heard from politicians past and present, musicians, actors, and comedians.

The big moment was the acceptance speech of Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday night.

- And to be clear, my entire career, I've only had one client, the people... (crowd cheering) And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth... (crowd cheering) I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.

(crowd cheering) Donald Trump is an unserious man.

(crowd laughing) But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.

(crowd cheering) - Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and a political science professor at USF, and she joins us now from Chicago, where she's been at the Democratic National Convention this week, and Judithanne, nice to see you again, thanks for coming on.

- Well, thanks for having me.

- So what was the highlight for you of this four days in Chicago?

- That is a tough question.

This is my eighth Democratic National Committee Convention, and it's four days of several hours of primetime programming each night, and usually, there's a crescendo from night one through the grand finale of the presidential nominee's acceptance speech, and energy increasing over those four days, and I have to tell you, day one was so incredible, the energy and the speeches, it was electrifying, and I kept thinking, "How is it going to elevate from here?

That's not possible," but as I was there in the arena, like, every day, every speech, someone would come out, and it was like, "What?

I can't believe it."

I mean, when Oprah came out, I was like... (laughs) She was incredible, or Amanda Gorman's poem, it just gave me chills when the victims of gun violence came at them, when the mother spoke from Uvalde, I was crying.

It was incredible, so I feel like all of these presenters gave us more information about what's at stake at this election, about who Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are, and their backgrounds, and the people that they've served throughout their careers.

You know, it's...

I... To be very frank with you, I'm gonna go back to C-SPAN and watch many of these speeches again, because there was so much happening, it was hard to digest, like, Michelle Obama had so many good points she made, and I was like, "I'm gonna have to remember that line, I need to watch this again."

Obviously, we'll all remember, "Do something," from that call to action that she gave, and that President Obama gave.

You know, I thought President Clinton had a really thoughtful analysis about what was at stake, and the economics behind, you know, why Democrats should be elected, so it's...

The number of Trump administration officials and Republicans, I was also very captivated by Adam Kinzinger's remarks.

Just...

There were really so many good speeches, and as you pointed out, speeches from, you know, people from all over the country, from municipal races and elected officials, governors, cabinet secretaries, all of our former presidents, it was really... (Judithanne laughing) - [Rob] No doubt- - It was an incredible four days.

- The Democrats have a wealth of potential candidates in the future for national office.

I wanna ask you one last question that is, outside, there were Palestinian human rights protestors, what was your interaction?

Did you see them?

And how did the delegates inside feel about those protestors?

- So there...

The way... - Riding the buses, and the way that the route went, I didn't really interact with protestors.

There was an issue on Monday night, the first night, where there was a security barricade that was breached, and buses were held, and we were delayed getting in, I didn't miss any of the primetime speeches, but I did get there later than I would have wanted to get there, but then, that was corrected, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we didn't have any issues entering the convention.

I think many delegates are sympathetic to the cause, and want to see the hostages come home, want to see peace, don't want to see civilians being killed, so, you know, I think there was some sympathy, but, you know, I was glad, on the inside, we were able to hear from the presenters, and there wasn't disruption inside the convention hall, but... And several of the speakers did address the issues of the cause, but yeah, I didn't have any direct interaction with the protesters.

- Well, Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, thanks.

Thanks for coming on, thanks for talking to us from Chicago, and have a safe trip back.

- Thank you so much.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) - Joining us on the battle this week, Jennifer Griffith is the chair of the Pinellas County Democratic Party, Hunter Branstner is the Vice President of the Polk County Young Republicans.

Victor DiMaio is a Democratic consultant, and the president of the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus, and Travis Horn is the president and CEO of Bullhorn Communications, and a Republican, nice to see all of you, thank you for coming to the show.

- Good to be here.

- Travis, let me start with you, the theme of the Democratic convention was freedom, what was your take on the Democratic convention?

What did you think of the theme?

- The theme, it's all political theater, you know?

I've been to conventions past, I'm sure many folks at the table here have, it... You put up your celebrities, your friends, and let 'em talk great about you, and you get a little bump... Hope to get a little bump heading out of the convention.

But now, the convention's over, let's, you know, get into substantive issues, let's start talking about whether Kamala Harris is for fracking, or whether she's against fracking, or whether she's for sending kids up the river for a little bit of weed, or whether she's not for sending kids up the river for a little bit of weed.

Let's talk about those substantive issues, and the borders are.

Was she really...?

The borders are, so let's get out of the convention mode into that, but it's just political theater.

It's a circus.

- Victor, what do you think the results of this convention are gonna be for the Democratic Party?

- Well, I mean, you know... You need several things in politics when you run for office, you need money, you need name recognition, good or bad, and it's... And you need timing, and one thing that's really going in the Democrats' favor right now is we have a great candidate, she was awesome.

She had a fantastic speech, I think she laid out all her positions on every issue that has been questionable, that was the purpose, was to introduce herself to the public, which she did in the first part of her speech, and the second part was to talk about what she... You know, how she feels, what her positions are on all the issues, and I think that's bodes well for her, and she's very... She's attractive, she's a lot younger than her opponent, she has a lot more clarity... Had a lot more clarity on a lot of issues, so I think the Democrats are in great shape.

I think we're gonna get a... She was already getting a big bump going into the convention, we're gonna get an even bigger bump coming out of the convention.

I saw Frank Luntz on CNBC the other day, he said he's never seen polling like this in his...

He's a big Republican consultant, number one, a pollster.

He's never seen polling like this, he could not find independent woman who was not supporting her, so the fact that we have a woman on the ticket, at the top of the ticket, versus Donald Trump, who's, you know, already been accused and convicted of, you know, having sexual affairs with women, and things like that, I think that's gonna be a huge setup that's gonna play very badly for the Republicans up and down the ticket.

- Hunter, the... Kamala Harris on Thursday night outlined a lot of policy positions, but she didn't say how she was gonna do it.

One policy position, middle-class tax cut for a hundred million people, didn't say how she was gonna do it.

What's your take on what you saw this week at the convention?

- I mean, exactly that.

I mean, Victor kind of said it for us, she had to introduce herself to the entire country.

She's been known as to be one of the most left senators in the entire Democrat party.

She's known for not being a part of bipartisan bills, so she's over here talking about policy, but doesn't tell us anything how, it's all platitudes.

I mean, she's known for really just kinda lying through her teeth and not showing up, she's been hiding from the American public, and this is the first time that she comes out without a single American vote.

They talk about democracy, not a single American vote got her into that position.

- [Victor] She was a ticket with Biden.

She ran with Joe Biden as a ticket.

- Correct.

Correct.

(indistinct) But you gotta remember one thing, Tulsi Gabbard took her out, she didn't even have a percentage point in 2020, she's the least liked democratic candidate ever, this is the worst-polled president and vice president in history, and now... (indistinct) No, no, no, I'm talking about the blue side that has had the worst- - [Travis] He's right, zero to hero.

- Yes, the worst three-and-a-half years we seen.

- It's timing, timing's everything.

- You're right, timing is absolutely a part of it, and her timing is to show up literally when she has no policy on her website, she goes and doesn't say any explanation on how her policies are actually gonna work, she says she was gonna go tackle the housing crisis, doesn't say anything on how or why.

- Except for $25,000 to each new home... (indistinct) - Which would bankrupt us.

- Which would bankrupt us.

(indistinct) The China tariffs that Biden still has propping up part of his economy?

You mean those tariffs?

(people laughing) Jennifer, I wanna ask you about what Hunter said about her poll numbers, I mean, she did... She has run previous presidential...

In a previous presidential race.

This time around, what do you think about her poll numbers?

Do you think Hunter's right?

- Yeah, no, I don't think Hunter's right at all on that.

She's within three points of Trump in the state of Florida.

Since the announcement took place, as of last Sunday, we had 26,000 people raise their hands and said they wanna come volunteer for the campaign.

As of yesterday, before her speech, it was up to 40,000 people, so from my perspective and what I see coming into the county party, this is unlike anything that's ever been seen before.

94% of all Democrats support her, so yeah, no, I think this is a definite movement.

- And we're opening the largest Kamala headquarters in the state right here in Tampa, it's called Casa Kamala, follow us on Facebook.

We're having our grand opening this weekend.

We have had hundreds, I mean, hundreds, I've never seen so many people.

- [Rob] Travis, you think this- - A month ago, she was lying to the American people about whether Biden was- - Do you think they're gonna be easy to beat?

You think they're gonna be easy to beat, the Democrats?

- Well, you know, it's like horse-racing, nothing's ever easy, and politics, I wouldn't say that at all, but when you've got a chameleon like Kamala, see, chameleons, they never really changed their primary color, they'll switch colors, like she did, on fracking, on weed, and on a variety of issues.

Well, the border as well, 'cause she said, you know, "Let 'em all in," and now, she's saying, "We've got the border under control."

The border's wide open.

The border's not under control.

- [Victor] No, it's not.

- But Trump never changes his colors.

(indistinct) - Let me ask you this question, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz threw some shade on our governor, Governor DeSantis, let's play that moment during the convention.

- We made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day.

(crowd cheering) So while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.

(crowd cheering) We also protected reproductive freedom, because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make.

(crowd cheering) And even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule.

"Mind your own damn business."

(crowd cheering) - So Hunter, I gotta ask you about that.

Some of those programs that he was attacking, like not expanding the school lunch program during the summer for hungry kids, that's what Florida is doing, Florida is banning books, Florida has cut back on abortion, what'd you think of Walz's statements?

- First things first, him saying, "Stay..." You know, "Stay in..." You know, "Follow your own business, stay out of our business," while he's putting women's business into boys' bathrooms, and men into women's bathrooms, that's not staying out of business, number one.

Number two, book banning, I mean, if you just wanna go out and say, "We are okay with kids seeing sexual stuff in school," Democrats can come out and just say it, but you guys won't say it, because you know that that- - But isn't that a parental decision?

Shouldn't parents decide which books their kids could read, and not the state, not the government?

- But again, that comes out to the question, "Should kids be reading inappropriate material in schools?"

And the answer is no.

- [Rob] But who controls that?

- Of course- - [Rob] Who should control that?

The state?

- Parents.

Parents, and parents put the school boards in power and- - But shouldn't a parent just say, "Hey, Joey, you can't take that book out of the library, it's not so..." - Hey, more than that, this is an empty attack, my child is in a Hillsborough County elementary school right now, eating free lunch.

I can pay for it, I'd pay for it, but it's free.

Breakfast and lunch are free for my child.

- But Florida's not joined the program to extend food programs for hungry kids during the summer... - If it's a federal grant, I'm sure they're not gonna turn away a federal grant.

- [Rob] They have turned it away.

- [Jennifer] Many times before.

- A lot...

The Republicans have refused to take Obamacare, for example, for Medicaid.

We have a million Floridians right now... We have Floridians dying right now because they can't get the healthcare, because this governor, and this Republican legislature, refused to accept the Medicaid expansion and that's a sad- - How could that be?

I thought Obama solved the healthcare program.

Didn't we solve the healthcare problem?

- State's rights.

- Republicans completely- - We did have it both ways.

- No, no, no.

- Okay.

Well, Governor Ron DeSantis' effort to expand his conservative educational agenda suffered some setbacks in Tuesday's primary elections.

(dramatic ringing) - [Narrator] Out of the 23 school board candidates that DeSantis publicly backed, 11 lost, six won, and six are headed for runoffs.

DeSantis targeted some incumbent school board members for being too liberal, among them, Laura Hine and Eileen Long in Pinellas County, and Nadia Combs and Jessica Vaughn in Hillsborough County, all won, despite the governor's opposition.

In a third race for an open seat on the Pinellas board, candidate Stacy Geier, who is backed by Moms for Liberty, is headed for a runoff against Katie Blaxburg.

In Sarasota, two candidates supposed by DeSantis, Tom Edwards, an incumbent, and Liz Barker, a newcomer, won election to the Sarasota School Board.

In Pasco County, another DeSantis-backed candidate, Allison Crumbley, lost to Jessica Wright.

And in what has been a very tense battle over the future of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, four candidates committed to keeping the hospital publicly-owned, won their respective races in the Republican primary.

They had been opposed by a group of so-called "medical freedom advocates," including vaccine and mask skeptics.

- So Victor, what's the status of the war on woke now in Florida?

How popular is Governor DeSantis' war on woke, based on what happened on Tuesday?

- This is a perfect example, I'm glad you ran this story, because this is a perfect example of what's in store for us here in Florida now, and what's gonna face us in a few weeks here for the November election.

The whole war on woke is going down the drain, along with Trump, DeSantis, and the entire Republican agenda because people are tired of it.

They're tired of attacking us for books, they're tired of attacking women's rights to choose, they're just tired of...

I worked 90 accounts, for example.

They...

I must have got 16 male...

I live in the district, I worked with Nadia, she was opposed by the senator's wife.

We had...

I got half a dozen emails- - [Rob] Jay Collins.

- Jay Collins' wife, and they spent a record...

They spent almost half a million dollars on a little school board reef, and they still lost.

- [Rob] Okay, here's- - There's more to this story though, because I have a client in Osceola County, she's a mom, she's a teacher, she's run a great campaign.

She did defeat a DeSantis-backed... A gentleman who was installed recently for a vacancy, to fill a vacancy for a person who went to the legislature, and so...

But she...

This mom worked hard, so there's more to that story, she's very conservative.

She could easily be a, quote, "Moms for Liberty," she just hasn't, she's working, so I don't think... (indistinct) - She did everything you're supposed to do, and she's still lost, because her positions were... She was lockstep, she had mailers with Ron DeSantis' picture on it and her, so that proves to me, in that district, which we have elections coming up now, with, you know, Bob Henriquez... (indistinct) Those people are gonna win because people are tired.

- Hold on, let me ask Hunter.

Hunter, what's the status of the war on woke here in Florida, after Tuesday's primer?

- It's still looking good, to be honest with you.

There's still six people that are in a runoff, so if you look at it mathematically, he's gonna have half of the people if those six people win, okay?

But to even push the issue more, we have close to a million, or over a million, new Republicans registered in Florida.

I don't see that running your guys' way in any way, shape or form, if it was...

The war on woke was going towards your way, you would be losing Republicans here, we're gaining them.

- I don't think we've seen the end of them, the Democrats can't help themselves for being just so far left.

- It's not a million new Republicans, let's get that very, very, very crystal clear, there are not a million new Republicans registered in this...

In the state of Florida.

(indistinct) Yeah, the gap in the list maintenance, and all the fun changes that went through rule-making and the legislature last year, so let's...

I will put that there.

That is a misnomer, public.

(indistinct) Nope, hey, P.S., if you're an inactive voter, you can still vote, so make sure you come out on November 5th.

Secondly, if you take what happened in the legislature this year, and Passidomo, and her letting a lot of these culture-war bills die, and you combine it with what just happened in our primary, and Laura Hine winning by roughly 40%, Eileen Long, who were on DeSantis' "hit-lists," running against Moms for Liberty.

Eileen Long and our two-to-one Republican district won by nine points.

- Well, Travis, that's an interesting point.

In these elections... Primary elections, turnout is low, and Republicans usually dominate turnout in primary elections.

- But we didn't really have...

I mean, Rick Scott's race was not contested, really, so there was nothing on the ballot.

- But still, Republicans are more reliable voters than Democrats are, and yet, during this race, the governor's candidates didn't do so well.

- I hope the Democrats keep opening more headquarters here because they're gonna really need 'em.

I mean... (indistinct) Is spending his money in Nevada, where he should spend it, he's spending it in Pennsylvania, in other places.

- Here's the key, here's the key, here's the key, the independents are fleeing.

You... We...

When we had 2 million more voters than the Republicans, Republicans still took over the legislature, the cabinet, the governor, why is that?

Because the independents are the key voters in every vote, you got Democrats, Republicans, and independents are fleeing the Republican party, and with choice being on the ballot, with marijuana being on the ballot, Republicans are gonna be looking at their behinds in the rear mirror.

- This convention will be over, the people will have to fill their gas tank, they will have to pay their bills, and they will be reminded, this is the Biden-Harris economy, and they can't... We can't do price controls, bet Publix loves that one.

- [Victor] We're not doing price controls.

- [Rob] Let's move on to another topic, the DeSantis administration is proposing adding hotel rooms, golf courses, and pickleball courts to some of Florida's most beloved state parks.

(dramatic ringing) - [Narrator] Among the changes, Honeymoon Island in Pinellas County would get pickleball courts, Hillsborough River State Park would get a disc-golf course and a pickleball court, state parks in Dade and Broward Counties would also get pickleball and disc golf, in Martin County, the Jonathan Dixon State Park would have the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower removed, and 45 holes of golf would be added, and two 350-room hotel lodges will be built at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine and Topsail Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, in the panhandle.

The plan to change the state parks was first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

The public has been given little notice of the proposed changes.

Meetings to get public input on the proposal are all scheduled for the same date, this coming Tuesday, at nine different locations around the state.

We're putting the information about the public hearings on the screen now, the first two are in the Tampa Bay area.

(tense electronic music) (tense electronic music continues) (tense electronic music continues) - So at all those meetings, there are three around the state, so Hunter, what do you think about the proposal?

- You know, the funny thing is, the key term of conservative is to conserve.

We like having our state parks, we... As a youth movement, we are more involved in the environment than our previous generation, so we really do care about the environment, and we do wanna see our state parks saved.

As a tennis player, pickleball is a...

I loathe it.

It is a sport that I... - [Travis] It's very popular.

- I can't stand it, the noise, I can't stand it, it's against my nature.

I don't see the point of having these nature parks, or our state parks, being filled with hotels, and pickleball, and disc golf, and golf, we already have that all outside.

As a Floridian, I like having a place where I can go see my native Florida conserve its nature, and again, it's still important to, you know, let people come out and see what Florida was about before, and we don't need the tourism funding because we had a million... Over a million people move to the state, so a lot of the argument for tourism and taxes, it's coming into the state anyways.

- I look forward to seeing the governor's plans to see if... What's the economic impact?

How is it...?

You know, I'm sure this is... Of course, this is for profit to some degree, but by and large, I mean, of course, our state parks are for our state citizens, they shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg.

- [Rob] Jennifer, what do you think about this idea?

- Well, let's talk about the millions in revenue that we get from visitors visiting these parks every year, let's talk about that, for once.... Or for one.

Second, the... Secondarily, excuse me, let's talk about the environmental impact of developing on wetlands.

All the flooding that just took place in Sarasota, those were existing developments around what was a preserve.

You develop that, you don't put in proper drainage, and what happens to these people that have lived there for 30, 40, 50 years?

Their houses are nine feet underwater with a good heavy rain from a tropical storm, or a Cat 1 hurricane, so are we protecting our citizens and our residents, or are we just, you know, doing stuff for bigger business, and more things that bring people to play pickleball with alligators in the middle of a state park?

- Victor, I'm wondering about the secrecy, the Times was given these documents by an insider in the state government, the government has not been forthright about its plans to do this.

- Because it's administrative law hearing, and it's being regulated by the executive branch, so they don't have to necessarily go to the legislature, but what I saw was big-time Republicans like Wilt Simpson, for example, who wants to run for governor, he's definitely against this idea, and we actually have... One place they wanna put an 18-hole golf course on, which means they're gonna be pouring fertilizer on those greens to make 'em look nice and pretty, and that'll destroy the whole... You know, ecotourism is a multi-billion-dollar industry, here in Florida, we have one of the largest ecotourism operations going on.

If they wanna go to the Ritz Carlton and go play pickleball, they can go down there.

Of course, even though the governor doesn't like Disney, so, you know, that's one of our biggest employers.

- Bill, we could do this show for, like, three hours if you guys are willing to hang around... (indistinct) Hey, thanks for a great show.

Our guests have been Jennifer Griffith, Hunter Branstner, Victor DiMaio, and Travis Horn.

If you have comments about this program, please send them to us at "FTW," wedu.org, and from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

(upbeat orchestral music) (upbeat orchestral music continues)