Florida Democrats, Nikki Fried seek to swat down accusations of favoritism

Florida Democratic Party (FDP) leaders are pushing back on accusations that they have shown favoritism in political contests. But FDP Chair Nikki Fried made no apologies for trying to restore strong leadership with the party.

“The party does not endorse and so we’ve made that very clear,” Fried told the press.

“But we have a lot on the line. We have democracy. We have freedoms. We are in a superminority in the House and the Senate. The Florida congressional delegation shrunk in size over the last few cycles, and we’re going to take that back. But that means that the adults in the room have to come together and figure out our best path forward.”

Her remarks came a day after Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell spoke at a campaign event held by President Joe Biden in Tampa. Stanley Campbell, another Democrat in the race, issued a statement criticizing the party for “insensitivity and favoritism.”

“Whether the Party wants to admit it or not, this race is wide open and ignoring the preference of a large swath of committed voters does a disservice to those voters at a time when the Democratic Party can ill afford to alienate them,” he said.

Fried and party leaders didn’t discuss the Senate race specifically. But they did directly address accusations that the party was influencing who would vote in a Miami-Dade Democratic Party leadership race.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, one of the candidates to chair the largest county party in the state, was part of the FDP press call and confronted the accusations.

“This concept of coronation or favoritism, this is really disruptive behavior that we were seeing and it amazes me that the focus right now from some of these individuals is to get into a personality and an ego battle and not deal with what we should be dealing with,” Jones said. “We should be dealing with messaging. We should be dealing with engagement, dealing with people, with apathy that actually exists here in Florida.”

Some local activists have criticized Fried’s decision to remove Robert Dempster as county Chair after Republicans in 2022 won the once solidly Democratic county in the Governor and Senate races, as well as winning several local contests. Dempster had come under fire for allegedly mismanaging party resources.

Billy Corben, Jones’ chief rival for county Chair, has also criticized a decision to schedule a vote on the position during the sabbath this Passover.