by Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes
As I write this op-ed, there are 72 days, six hours, and 55 minutes before the November 5, 2024, presidential election. This presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is truly, in many of our lifetimes, the most significant and sacred presidential election perhaps ever. This is not hyperbole, rhetoric, or sugar high. So much is on the ballot in this nation. Time will not permit me to recite many of the reasons why we need to vote in record numbers. Democracy is on this ballot; freedom is on this ballot; national security is on this ballot; racial equality is on this ballot; voting rights, women’s rights, civil rights, environmental protection, and decency are on the ballot; the rule of law is on the ballot, and much more. This presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be decided by what the political experts call ‘battleground’ states, such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and perhaps North Carolina.
However, my argument is that Vice President Kamala Harris can win Florida. Yes, I said it. I am of sound mind, and I do not need to be admitted to any mental treatment facility, at least not at this time. Vice President Kamala Harris can win Florida because of her vision, her experience, her leadership skills, her rich history, her heritage, and her sense of decency, dignity, and decorum. I believe that God has ordained Vice President Kamala Harris and called her for such a time as this. We must thank God for President Biden’s courageous and selfless act of stepping aside and firmly endorsing his competent, capable, calm, and charismatic Vice President. It was his unwavering endorsement that put an end to the notion of considering other prospects to succeed President Biden. The Bible references “The ram in the bush,” Genesis 22:13. That ram is Vice President Kamala Harris. Say her name! She can win Florida’s 30 electoral votes! How? Inquiring minds may ask.
Florida is ripe for fresh new leadership. Florida has witnessed clear examples of the danger of Project 2025. We are living and experiencing the pain of Project 2025. This pain includes voter suppression and gerrymandering, the dismantling of teaching our history factually and truthfully, the disdain for collective bargaining, the disarming and dissolving of our higher education system, taking down duly elected representatives, reducing the power of local school boards, city and county governments, and refusing to accept federal funds to feed hungry children during the summer months, etc. Our constitutional right to free speech is in jeopardy, e.g., we cannot say ‘climate change’ nor ‘gay.’ Additionally, the autonomy of corporations and businesses is being challenged; the importance of public schools is being jeopardized; lifesaving vaccinations, plus quality health care have been carelessly minimized.
Listen, the over 900 pages of the Project 2025 playbook for the extreme MAGA movement is fully operational in the most diverse state in this nation, Florida. If we reject Project 2025 and implement Project Rise-Up, Vice President Kamala Harris can win Florida and save our democracy, our constitution, and our freedoms. If we can convince most registered Independent voters to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket, we win.
I am an Independent and I am voting for my children’s and grandchildren’s future. There are over 3.9 million, or approximately 34% of voters in Florida who are not affiliated with a political party. Furthermore, there are 5.3 million Republican voters (39%) and 4.3 million Democrats (29%). My prayerful points are that the overwhelming number of Democrats will vote for the Harris and Walz ticket. Deep down in my spiritual soul, I believe there are a significant number of Republican voters who will listen to their ‘better angels’ and join most Independents. That is how, after much thought, prayer, common sense, and love of country, Harris-Walz will turn Florida ‘blue,’ and we can say with joy: ‘Madam President.’
This effort is not going to be easy. I will encourage the Harris-Walz campaign to fight for the great state of Florida—to ‘rise-up.’ I am humbly asking them to rethink their strategy by allocating the necessary resources and ground game by sending some of their key surrogates to visit major cities in the Sunshine State and even send the brilliant and beautiful vice president herself, or her capable running mate, Gov. (Coach) Tim Walz to visit Florida. Vice President Kamala Harris has provided energetic, engaging, and electrifying leadership to the campaign. Her energy, passion, hope, and joy are contagious. It shows up in her mass gatherings of enthusiastic supporters. This energy can be sustained from state to state; this energy is transferable; and I believe this energy can lead to an historic turnout of voters in Florida.
Yes, we can, and yes, we will win Florida. Florida is ready to embrace ‘The New Way Forward.’ Well, this is one of the preachers of Florida who strongly believes that “With God, nothing is impossible!” Let us ‘rise up’ and go to work to turn Florida blue this November.
(Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes is president and publisher of the Capital Outlook newspaper and the pastor of the historic Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida; local president of the National Action Network, Tallahassee Florida; former president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., Congress of Christian Education; chairman of the Social Justice Ministry of the Florida General Baptist Convention, Inc.; chairman of the board of directors for the First Bethlehem Baptist Association: member of the board of trustees, Edward Waters University; and former member of board of trustees of Florida Memorial University and Florida A and M Universities.)
