Clinton VP Pick Tim Kaine Talks Early Voting At FIU
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton continues to focus on Florida, a key battleground state in her bid for the Oval Office.
On Monday her running mate, Tim Kaine, stopped into South Florida and held an early voting rally outside Florida International University's Graham Center - in the same city where he was named Clinton's vice presidential pick.
"If we win Florida, we're going to win. Can I just tell you that? That's the gospel truth," said Kaine.
On the first day of early voting, Kaine reminded supporters that Florida is a swing state. He said the campaign is encouraged with the number of people who have already voted by mail and is excited by those who recently registered.
"Florida, you guys are a checkmate state. You're a checkmate state. If Hillary wins Florida she is going to be president," said Kaine.
While speaking at FIU, Kaine brought up Trump's comment about the election that caught many off guard.
"Donald Trump was asked if he would accept the results of the election. This is something everybody does. He said I will keep you in suspense about this. Hey, folks, this is not a TV show," said Kaine.
He also laid out the Clinton/Kaine case for the White House, repeating the call for immigration reform, raising the minimum wage, protecting a woman's right to chose and fighting the effects of climate change, just to name a few. They were things supporters wanted to hear.
"I'm just excited that they are actually good, genuine people, nothing like Trump, so I'm pretty excited," said student Jocelyn Colon.
Local leaders like Senator Bill Nelson and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine were also seen at the rally.
To end off the event, Kaine encouraged students to not only vote themselves, but to get others to the polls too.
"You do that on November 8th, we will win Florida. If we win Florida, we will make history and Hillary Clinton will be our next president. Thank you, FIU. Thanks, Panthers," said Kaine.
Earlier in the day, Kaine made a surprise visit to Miami-Dade County's Department of Elections.
Over the weekend, he stopped into Gainesville where he spoke about Donald Trump,
"We've got to turn out big to show any other country don't think you can mess with an American election, we're not going to let you do it. We can't take anything for granted because Donald Trump is setting it up to whine that it was all rigged. But if we win big, he can still whine, but nobody will believe him," said Kaine. "We can't take anything for granted because if we are able to win big, we'll bring in more members of the House and the Senate who will help Hillary do the things I was just describing and move this nation forward. We can't take anything for granted."
Former President Bill Clinton also made three stops in South Florida to campaign for his wife.
Mr. Clinton spoke at the New Birth Baptist Church near Opa Locka, The Fountain of New Life in Miami Gardens and the Pembroke Pines Century Village Jewish Center where he reminded the hundreds of people on hand the importance of casting their ballots.
Hillary Clinton will hold an early voting rally in Coconut Creek on Tuesday.
The latest CBS News Battleground Tracker has Clinton with a three-point lead over Donald Trump in Florida (45 percent to 43 percent).
More than eight in ten Republicans in Florida believe Trump when he says voter fraud is widespread and 72 percent he would win in November were it not for fraud.
To widen her lead in Florida, Clinton will need to do a better job of convincing voters in a number key areas like her ability to fix the economy and showing that she understands regular people. She is below the 50 percent mark on whether she would "act with integrity" as president (49 percent say so), on whether she "understands regular people" (44 percent) and on the question of whether she "could fix the economy" (42 percent).
A new national poll has Clinton with a double-digit advantage over Trump. She leads the Republican nominee by a margin of 50 percent to 38 percent.
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