Battle For Florida

MIAMI, Florida, Oct 25 2016 – Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump planned to spend Tuesday campaigning in battleground Florida, while Republicans scrambled to keep the once-reliably GOP state of Utah from slipping away.

Florida is a must-win state for Trump, according to current battleground state forecasts that project it is next-to impossible for him to win the White House without the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes. Trump is scheduled to begin the day in the Miami area and hold rallies later near Orlando and in Tallahassee.

Recent polls give Clinton a slim lead in Florida, a state she can afford to lose if she wins other big states on Election Day. She is scheduled to hold what is likely her final in-person fundraiser in the Miami area on Tuesday while also holding an early-vote rally outside Boca Raton, Fla.

In a sign of Trump’s increasingly perilous position, his campaign announced overnight that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, will campaign in Utah on Wednesday. The Beehive State has voted for a Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1968, but recent polls give Trump a slight lead or lock him in a three-way tie with Clinton and conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

McMullin is a former Republican congressional aide who is a Mormon and went to college in Utah, his base of support. Some projections show he could become the first third-party presidential candidate to win a state since American Independent Party candidate George Wallace won five Southern states in 1968.

There are no current plans to send Clinton or running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to Utah, according to campaign aides, who said they are relying for now on regional surrogates.

While Pence tries to stave off an unanticipated challenge in Utah, Trump on Wednesday is scheduled to leave the campaign trail to attend the official grand opening of his new Trump-branded hotel on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue.