THE VILLAGES, Florida — Golf carts buzzing through perfectly manicured grounds in the world’s largest retiree playground could be carrying a problem for President Trump.
“There’s not many of us. But, you know what? There’s more of us than you think there are,” said Judy Stuart, a Democratic poll observer with her cart decked out in Joe Biden gear, who never felt compelled to volunteer in politics until this year in order to oppose Trump.
Residents of The Villages, home to over 100,000 mostly white seniors and 50 golf courses, say that election tensions and enthusiasm are high. Many say there was not anywhere close to as much political paraphernalia or events here in 2016. A pro-Trump golf cart parade last weekend drew 1,250 carts.
But in the Republican stronghold, it’s easy to find supporters of the Democratic presidential nominee showing similar levels of enthusiasm, if on a smaller scale. More than 300 golf carts participated in a pro-Biden parade earlier this month. Next-door neighbors fly dueling Trump and Biden flags.
Two voters named Scott and Carrie, who declined to give their last names, nearly whispered when revealing to the Washington Examiner that they voted for Biden despite being many yards away from anyone else in the parking lot of an early voting location.
“We know very strong Trump supporters, and they actually don’t know that we’re voting for Biden,” Carrie said.
Sumter County, where The Villages sits and makes up a majority of the population, accounts for just a small portion of the total number of votes cast statewide. It is a frequent stop for Republican candidates looking to ensure that that they win the finicky must-win swing state. Trump held a rally here on Friday, and Vice President Mike Pence visited two weeks ago.
With polls showing Trump losing support from seniors, sights are set on The Villages. If Biden can siphon off a decent percentage of votes there, Trump could have difficulty winning Florida, and ultimately, the election.
Around a dozen Biden supporters in a handful of golf carts gather most days on the side of a busy roundabout by Lake Sumter Landing to show support for the Democratic presidential nominee. Gary DePalma has a hard-shell golf cart that could easily be mistaken for a Smart Car with a Biden logo affixed to the side.
“People in the square at nighttime, they go up to my window saying, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ No, because we got to come out,” said DePalma, who wore a makeshift piece of plastic as a face mask with a piece of paper taped to it that read, “The Villages helped to vote Trump out.” He also posts videos online of a giant stuffed teddy bear made to “talk” in support of Biden.
The small group wasn’t along in their support. In the 50 minutes that the Washington Examiner spoke to the roadside Biden supporters, at least 53 cars responded with a horn-honk in approval. Several others waved or flashed a thumbs-up.
Participants say the group occurred naturally, not as part of a Democratic Party initiative. And they’re not the only ones. Across from one of the campuses many golf courses, resident Ed McGinty leads a separate crew of roadside Biden-Harris golf carts and flash signs with more negative messages, like, “DONALD TRUMP WHITE TRASH,” and, “BIGOTS/RACIEST [sic] FLY TRUMP FLAGS.”
The roadside golf cart gathering is as much an unofficial social club as it is a political activity.
Kim Daniels, 56, came to live in The Villages with her parents this year to get away from her Fox News-obsessed husband in New York but was wary of coming to such a Republican area. “I was terrified. I was even afraid to say anything,” she said. But she was thrilled to see other Democrats on the side of the road, and the next day joined them to yell and “get anger out.”
Fears of going against the political stream were prominent. Echoing complaints from Trump supporters in other areas of the country, several people said that the vocal Biden support led to social consequences such as Trump-supporting friends becoming acquaintances or hear nasty insults yelled from those who dislike their Biden golf cart signs. DePalma claims someone deliberately brushed his golf cart with a car, scratching the front bumper.
Residents of The Villages chant in support of Biden earlier in October 2020. Courtesy of Paula Orlando.
Early voting figures back up the threat of a growing Democratic minority threatening Trump’s chances in The Villages.
By the end of the day on Wednesday, 72% of the 105,612 registered voters in Sumter County had already cast their ballots either in-person or by mail. That’s on track to meet or exceed 2016 total voter turnout of 84%. Almost 76,000 voters have already cast their ballots, which is nearly as many people who voted in the 2016 presidential election.
As of Thursday morning, Republicans accounted for 59% of returned ballots, Democrats for 24%, and 17% were from independents or those in a minor party.
Election analysts generally warn against overinterpreting figures on early ballots returned as a sign of what’s to come in the election, but election guru Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report said that Sumter County is his “lone exception.”
“If Trump is winning them by 63%-36% or less, that would be a terrible sign for his chances of winning FL/reelection (likely needs 67%+ in the final Sumter count),” Wasserman tweeted Wednesday, but theorized that Trump might win “something like 68%-70%,” which would make for “a very close race statewide in FL.”
Trump won Sumter County 68% to Hillary Clinton’s 29% in 2016 and won the state of Florida with a 49% plurality and nearly 113,000 votes over Clinton.
The president propelled The Villages to the spotlight in June when he retweeted a video of a pro-Trump golf cart parade in which a Trump-supporting man, being called “racist” by counterprotesters yelling as he rolled by, put a fist up in the air and said, “White power.”
Trump supporters say that the man was being sarcastic, fed up by the Democrats hurling insults at him. Biden supporters say that the moment shocked their conscience, but that it wasn’t a major motivating factor that pushed anyone in the community to support Biden who wasn’t already doing so.
Also not a large motivating factor sparking Biden support: The COVID-19 pandemic. Biden-supporting Villagers shake their heads at Republican neighbors, huge numbers of whom are in the at-risk age group, who feel invincible and spend nights dancing in crowded courtyard concerts and bars, refusing to put their life on pause. But even Democrats say that the community has a good handle on keeping infections down.
Republicans of The Villages aren’t worried about the threat of an energized Democratic minority. They’re riding high on Trump’s visit last week and the increased enthusiasm via campaign shirts and golf cart signs in their own ranks compared to in 2016.
“I don’t know who started that, or if it’s true or not true,” said Don Eaton, an active Republican volunteer, said about the phenomenon of Trump losing support from seniors. “Right here, Republicans, old people, senior citizens, it’s ‘Trump, Trump Trump.’”
That’s not to say all of the Republicans in The Villages are full-on MAGA loyalists or that they don’t have criticisms of Trump.
“I voted for him, but sometimes he drives me crazy with the way he tweets,” said Jim Menelli just after he voted for Trump on Wednesday. “I wish he would just keep his mouth shut.”
But Trump’s record on the economy and in foreign policy, along with Menelli’s worries about the Democratic nominee’s son Hunter Biden’s shady business ventures in China, kept him voting Republican.
