Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of attendees in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday. Ty Wright/Getty Images
COCOA BEACH, Fla. — On a sun-splotched Saturday morning, Diana Pappas is lugging a fistful of Donald Trump signs. The other two she put in front of her Cocoa Beach home were swiped in the dead of night, she lamented, and this time she was ready to put a trap on them. Maybe a snare.
It was a year of political hallmarks for Pappas. The first time volunteering for a campaign. The first time attending a political rally. And the first (and second and third) time putting a sign for a candidate in her front yard.
“I’m not giving up,” she said, after enlisting to join in Trump’s campaign at a squat building a few blocks off the beach. “There are a lot of closet Trump supporters out there, and we just need to mobilize them. This is the year we flip back.”
Barring a monumental shake-up in other battleground states, he'll lose the race if he loses Florida. He needs a surge of political newcomers to capture Florida's 29 Electoral College votes and salvage a dwindling chance to win the White House - and he's spending a huge chunk of his time in the final stretch of the race there.
Read more: Florida, once again, could decide the presidential election
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Alabama: Why Alabama is Trump's red-state constant
Virginia: Changing demographics drive Virginia's purple reboot
North Carolina: A Trump-Clinton battle royale in a bitter battleground
South Carolina: Democrats enjoy a fleeting moment of parity
Texas: In land of Cruz, GOP message is ‘We have to go with who we have’
Interactive: Shifting South: Political trends that shape the region
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