Hurricane Matthew: Haiti storm disaster kills hundreds

But Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest storm to lash the Caribbean in more than a decade, could have another unintended outcome by shaping the outcome of the US election.

As Matthew approaches the key swing state of Florida days out from its October 11 voter registration deadline, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are steering clear.

Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Florida who ran President Barack Obama’s 2008 race, told CNN any time off the campaign trail was far from ideal.

With the election just a month away, both candidates will be seeking to woo as many undecided voters as possible.

Trump and Clinton both need to win Florida, along with nearby North Carolina, which is also in the hurricane’s path. The two swing states have a combined 44 electoral votes, and it will be hard for either candidate to become president without them.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine told CNN’s New Day safety, not politics, is the important issue at hand.
“We’re very mindful of the fact that a visit at the wrong time, when people are really focused on keeping themselves safe, would be a real distraction,” he said.

With residents across both key states being told to evacuate, there is speculation it could impact on people’s ability to register to vote.

According to CNN, the scenario is proving a headache for Clinton in particular, with recent polls indicating Trump has gained ground in Florida. Her push to register new voters and bring them into the election is crucial.
 

This isn’t the first time a disaster has struck at a critical point in a presidential election campaign.

In 2008, the Global Financial Crisis hit with full force in the middle of the campaign. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, was neck and neck with Obama, but his handling of the crisis cost him.

McCain announced he was suspending his campaign because of the “historic crisis in our financial system”, and returned to Washington to deal with it. He also pushed for a scheduled debate between the candidates to be postponed.

“At a bipartisan White House meeting — called solely because McCain had asked the Bush administration to hold it — he sat sullen and silent, saying ‘I’ll just listen’, as Obama showed a detailed command of the situation,” Vanity Fairreported.

It all fed into an overall impression of panic and unpreparedness from McCain, which contrasted with Obama’s calm, measured approach. The voters noticed.

It was a natural disaster in 2012, as Hurricane Sandy hit in the final week of the election campaign. Later, an exit poll from CBS found Sandy was the “most important factor” for a quarter of voters when they made their decision on election day.

President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney both stopped campaigning. But while Romney had to stay out of the way, Obama had official duties as president to complete, and they gave him the chance to show he could steer the ship during a time of crisis.

For example, when Obama was pictured embracing New Jersey’s Republican governor Chris Christie while visiting disaster-affected areas, it showed he could be bipartisan. Voters like bipartisanship.

The moment had such a noticeable effect that some Republicans accused Christie of helping Obama’s cause, but as NewJersey.com reported, the governor remained unrepentant.

“I was doing my job,” he said during an interview with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham last year. “The president came to offer help. If they expected me to play politics and dump on the president, I wasn’t going to do it.”

According to ThinkProgress, Obama and Romney were extremely close in the polls before Sandy hit. In the days after, Obama surged back in front, and ended up winning the election quite comfortably.

Many cited his cool command during the disaster as one of the big reasons behind his victory.

That’s the power a disaster can have in the middle of a hotly-contested election, whether it’s natural or man-made. And it’s proof that Trump and Clinton’s handling of Hurricane Matthew could prove to be a crucial turning point this year.