Outside the community center, nestled on a tree-lined street between an elementary school and duplexes in Pembroke Pines, a half-dozen Biden supporters, many of them in their 60s, gathered in the early afternoon to try to get a glimpse of the candidate. They held Biden-Harris signs and wore campaign T-shirts, but most said that they had never before stood under the blazing South Florida afternoon sun to stump for a politician.
“First time I ever donated money to a campaign, too,” said Kathy Sells, 73, who wore a Biden-Harris hat, button and mask, and carried a sign she had made at home. “I hate that we are laughed at by the nations of the world.”
“If we want to keep the nature of our democracy, we need Biden,” added Ms. Sells, a Democrat who said she had already voted by mail.
“We need some peace out of this chaos,” agreed Daisy Hensley, 68. “We are exhausted.”
Ms. Hensley is a Democrat, but she said her husband was a lifelong Republican, “and he backs Biden 100 percent.” The couple used to see their grandchildren, ages 12 and 10, every day. During the pandemic, Ms. Hensley said, she has seen them only from afar.
“It breaks our heart,” she said. “All the grandparents — we are suffering.”
Ana and Frank Butaric fled Communist-controlled countries as children — Cuba for her and Croatia for him — and said they were fed up with Mr. Trump’s attempts to portray Mr. Biden as a socialist.
Mr. Butaric, 65, said he had previously not followed politics but thought he could no longer afford to be “politically naïve.” His mother is in her late 80s and his in-laws are in their 90s and late 80s, and he is worried about the coronavirus. “If they get it, they won’t survive it,” he said.