Battle of golf carts an election metaphor in Villages, Florida

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The Villages, Florida: It’s Debi Hahn’s first golf cart parade for Donald Trump, and she came dressed for the occasion. Sparkly denim Trump hat. Stars and Stripes leggings. Trump sneakers. The outfit is complemented by their green golf cart, which is provided with Pro-Trump flags, stickers and signs.

The 68-year-old grandmother lives in The Villages, a large area in central Florida, the largest old-age village in the United States. Often referred to as “Disneyland for Retirees”, The Villages has more than 80 swimming pools, 100 tennis courts and 50 golf courses. This makes it a magnet for seniors from across the country.

Golf carts are not only the preferred mode of transport here, but also political protest. To show their support for the US president, hundreds of villagers have gathered to ride their carts along the specially designed trails that meander through the area.

“I think he’s great,” says Hahn, waiting for the parade to begin. “I wish people would just leave him alone so he could do an even better job. He has the best interests of the country in his heart. ”

Before the villagers leave for their convoy, they sing the national anthem, recite the pledge of loyalty and bow their heads in prayer.

“Father, we thank you for having a president who is a fighter, who has a backbone, who says no to the abortion industry, who says no to allow this land to land,” says a silver-haired man wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

Virtually all major polls show that Trump is clearly lagging behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden, but that doesn’t make sense here. The sun is in the sky, optimism is in the air and 700 golf carts are lining the street. How could Trump possibly lose with this enthusiasm?

“I don’t believe the polls, I think they’re far away,” says Carol North airily. North, who moved to The Villages from New York five years ago, believes Trump did a great job treating the coronavirus pandemic, saying, “I don’t know what anyone else could have done better.”

Friends Carol McNeal and Dorothy Sullivan agree.

“He just handled COVID perfectly,” says Sullivan.

“He’s saving us from socialism, he’s trying to close the border to prevent illegal immigrants from coming,” says McNeal.

Democrat Els Reed stops to take a pottery class and wonders if it is safe to leave her golf cart in the parking lot as she displays a Biden-Harris sticker. “We’re pretty outnumbered here,” she says quietly.

Ninety-eight percent of The Villages’ 130,000 residents are white and rather conservative. In 2016, Trump won 69 percent of the vote here, while Hillary Clinton received just 30 percent of the vote.

This reflected Trump’s overall dominance of older voters: he beat Clinton by nine percentage points among voters 65 and over, according to the Pew Research Center.

But Democrats believe they can make great strides with older voters this year. In particular, they want to use Trump’s repeated efforts to downplay the severity of a virus that is particularly deadly to seniors.

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In August, the Biden campaign ran an ad with Donna, a resident of The Villages, in which she and her husband felt “trapped” and had not seen their grandchildren for six months. “I don’t blame Donald Trump for the virus, I blame him for his lack of action,” she says.

A Pew poll released last week found that Biden and Trump split the 65-and-over vote evenly. Other polls show Biden is winning among seniors, a turnaround that explains why he’s built such a commanding lead over Trump.

Americans over 65 make up a quarter of the electorate and, more importantly, they vote in greater numbers than any other age group. In the 2016 election, 71 percent of them voted, compared to just 46 percent of 18-29 year olds.

While The Villages calls itself “America’s friendliest hometown,” political disputes can escalate here.

Just ask Ed McGinty, 72, who has been dubbed “the most hated man in the villages.”

Before moving to Florida from Pennsylvania five years ago, the retired real estate agent had never been involved in any political activism. Then he was radicalized by Trump.

McGinty has made it his business to often display crude signs on his golf cart that read Trump “white trash”, a “dirty pig” and “Putin’s bitch”. In June, he went to the police to report he had been attacked by a Trump supporter who took offense at one of his signs and left him with a bloody lip and scratches on his neck.

He recently started a special golf group for Democrats after Republican golf pals told him he could no longer play with them unless he removed his anti-Trump signs.

Every afternoon, McGinty sits on a busy street in his golf cart for an hour to get his message across. When Der Sydney Morning Herald and Age Visit him, he shows a sign that reads: “May Donald Trump burn 200,000 dead in hell”. An angry woman stops to call him “un-American” and tell him to be ashamed.

McGinty admits his aggressive signs go too far even for many other Democrats who wish he’d focus on promoting Biden rather than spanking Trump.

“The purpose is to put my finger in the eyes of Trump supporters and show them that I can do what I want politically,” he says. “I’ve never been as proud of myself as I am now.”

McGinty’s friend Lyn McKenzie, a former flight attendant who often sits on the street with him, says he has allowed other Democrats at The Villages to feel less intimidated when they express their political views.

“More and more Democrats here are getting brave and that’s up to Ed,” she says.

Villagers report that there are far more Pro-Biden golf carts on display than Clinton four years ago. And last week, around 300 Democrats held a golf cart parade through The Villages to cast their postal ballots.

“Hillary wasn’t as popular a candidate as Biden for real or imaginary reasons,” said Chris Stanley, president of the Villages Democratic Club.

“We are louder and more visible than before.”

Stanley predicts that Trump will still win the majority of the vote here, but with less leeway compared to 2016. Given that Florida elections are usually close – Trump won the state by 1.2 percentage points four years ago – , even small changes in voting behavior can have enormous voting consequences.

“There’s an increased sense of urgency this year,” says Stanley. “We’ll be working until 7pm on election night to make sure everyone who supports Joe Biden votes.”