TAMPA, Fla — President Joe Biden’s campaign announced that it was partnering with the Florida Democratic Party to open its first campaign office in the state Thursday. 

The move comes after Biden visited Tampa last week to hit former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the state’s upcoming six week abortion ban. In addition to that visit, Vice President Kamala Harris plans to go to Jacksonville on Wednesday. 

The Biden team’s first office will be located in Hillsborough County and will serve as “a hub for grassroots organizing and voter mobilization, training sessions for volunteers, canvass kickoffs, and volunteer recruitment events,” according to a release from the campaign. 

“Florida is ground zero in the fight for our rights and fundamental freedoms, and we’re not taking anything for granted,” Florida State Democratic Party Director Jasmine Burney-Clark said. “Hillsborough County voted blue in 2016 and 2020, and we expect to deliver Hillsborough again for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris again this November. We’ll continue to engage voters across our coalition to highlight the stark contrast between President Biden’s work to lower costs for our families and protect our freedoms and Donald Trump’s promise to gut Social Security and Medicare while banning abortion.”

The campaign underscored Florida’s status as a battleground state in its messaging and also referenced the fact that abortion will actually be on the ballot, a potential motivating factor to get voters to the polls in November. 

Democrats have been hard-pressed to find hope in electoral chances in the state in recent years. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, and the governor’s mansion. In 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio held off Democratic challenger Val Demings, earning 57.7% of the vote. DeSantis performed well, earning 59.4% against former Gov. Charlie Crist. 

In 2020, former President Donald Trump earned 51.22% of the vote in the state, compared to Biden’s 47.86%. 

Going back further, Democrats were much closer in electoral results in 2018. Sen. Rick Scott earned 50.06% of the vote, and former Sen. Bill Nelson earned 49.93%. That was the same year that DeSantis narrowly beat out Andrew Gillum for governor. DeSantis earned 49.59% of the vote, Gillum earned 49.19%. 

It should be noted that Trump’s current residence is in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Neither Biden nor the former president had much need to campaign in the state during the primary season, since both primaries were decided handily before Florida voters had the chance to weigh in.