Florida delegates go to Biden after state Democrats cancel primary election

According to recent reports, Florida Democrats are preventing Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and other opponents of President Joe Biden from being included on the state's primary ballot.

This move essentially gives Biden the full complement of 250 delegates that Florida has to offer, as Breitbart News reported.

According to Politico, Biden was the only Democratic candidate on the Florida Democratic Party's ticket when the time for submitting names of approved candidates for upcoming primary arrived on Thursday.

Candidate's Comments

Phillips said on X that he would contest "this absolute nonsense" and said the decision disenfranchises millions of Floridians.

“What happened in Florida yesterday is a tragedy and a travesty. The Florida Democratic Party – just a handful of people – decided to disenfranchise millions of Democratic voters in Florida by saying, ‘We’re not gonna have a presidential primary,’” Phillips said in a video posted Thursday.

“I’m running for president; there are others running for President as Democrats, and this is the kind of stuff that happens in Tehran, not in Tallahassee. We’ve got to do something about this,” he added.

The Florida Democratic Party is gifting all 250 state delegates to Joe Biden without a single vote. We won’t stand for it.

Help support our efforts to pursue legal channels to rectify this absolute nonsense: https://t.co/9HToQNkmvK pic.twitter.com/9yMcpsGgMn

— Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) December 1, 2023

The Sunshine State will also not be including Marianne Williamson on its ballot. This comes at a time when a Messenger/Harris poll released on Thursday revealed that 35% of registered Democrats are not supporting Biden in the primary election.

With 65% of the vote, Biden was followed by Williamson with 8% and Phillips with 4%. A further 24% were still on the fence or intended to cast their ballot for a different candidate.

The complete survey, which included questions about national trends and the Republican primary climate, surveyed 4,003 people between Nov. 22 and 28, and its margin of error is plus or minus 1.6%.

Additional Response

“I’ve been a lifelong Democrat… supported our party since I was in my 20s, been a member of Congress for three terms, and was a member of House Democratic leadership. I’ve never seen something so absurd, so disenfranchising, and so suppressive of Democratic voters,” Phillips explained in the video.

Former Florida gubernatorial candidate and current Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried labelled Phillips's worries "conspiratorial" in reaction to his other statement that he provided to Politico.

“We are dismayed by Dean Phillps’ conspiratorial and inappropriate comments comparing the state of Florida to the Iranian regime as part of his knee-jerk reaction to long-established procedures,” Fried said. “This is unbecoming of someone running for higher office.”

Williamson also took to X to harshly criticize the action taken by the Florida Democratic Party.

Well you won’t believe what Florida is doing now…
You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get on the ballot in states across the country, but Florida takes the cake: they won’t even let you try!
The FL Sec. of State has decided to simply allow the Florida…

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) November 30, 2023

“You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get on the ballot in states across the country, but Florida takes the cake: they won’t even let you try!” Williamson wrote in a post on X, arguing that the secretary of state is allowing the party to “DECIDE who it wants to be on the ballot.”

“This absurd and unconstitutional display is exactly how an authoritarian state works: People are told they can vote but are informed by someone else who their options will be,” she added.