Trump campaign says it doesn’t need to win Florida — but will win Florida

“Now, by no means do we think the president is not going to carry Florida, in fact,” said Nick Trainer, the director of battleground strategy, cutting off his own train of thought during a recent briefing with journalists — before he, in turn, was cut off mid-sentence by campaign manager Bill Stepien.

“Let me say it again: The president will win Florida,” said Stepien.

So, the president does not have to win Florida. He can get by with expanding his map in the Midwest. But he will win Florida. Get it?

Either way, the perennial swing state is once again one of the most critical battlegrounds in the presidential election. And polls suggest a tightening race as both candidates pour time and money into the state.

Last week, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made his first campaign visit to Florida, spending a day along the Interstate 4 corridor, where elections can be won or lost.

The same math has played out for decades. Republicans can bank on votes in conservative northern and southwestern Florida, while Democrats win big numbers in the big population centers of southern Florida.

That leaves both sides battling it out for swing votes in the urban and suburban purple areas running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean along Interstate 4.

This is why Biden visited Tampa Bay and then Kissimmee, near Orlando, for a Hispanic Heritage Month event. Ivanka Trump was in the area last week too.

The stakes are huge. Florida has backed the winning candidate in every election for the past five decades, with the exception of 1992.

And while Democrats believe Biden has multiple paths to the presidency, with or without the Sunshine State, they see Florida as a place where they can halt Trump in his tracks.

“There is no realistic path to a second Trump term without Florida,” said a recently published memo by polling firm GQR for Unite The Country, a pro-Biden super PAC.

Success lies in “holding college-educated whites, increasing his support among non-Cuban Hispanics to Clinton levels and turning out African Americans (currently 85 percent Biden),” it concluded.

That hints at a growing concern in the Biden camp that his support is not where it needs to be among Hispanic voters — who, in any case, lean more Republican than Hispanic voters elsewhere because of Florida’s Cuban American population. Trump is seen as tougher on Cuba than Biden, who was part of an administration that built diplomatic links and trade ties with the island nation.

And in recent days, the president has narrowed the overall deficit. A CBS News poll suggested that Biden leads Trump 48% to 46% among likely voters, a change from a string of results in August and July that saw the Democratic challenger with an advantage of 6 points or more.

Both sides still have wild cards up their sleeve.

A Florida judge is among the candidates being considered by Trump for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. Barbara Lagoa would become only the second Latina appointed to the highest court in the land.

And Biden’s team is getting a $100 million cash injection from billionaire Mike Bloomberg — on the condition that every dollar is spent in Florida.

The fight for Florida’s 29 Electoral College votes is a long way from done.