Nikki Fried promises Broward County faithful she will fight to win

Down in the polls and fundraising as she vies for her party’s nomination for Governor, the only Democrat elected statewide, Nikki Fried, promised Broward County’s Democratic faithful Monday that she knows how to fight — and win.

She scarcely mentioned her chief rival for the Democratic nomination for Governor or the current occupant of the Governor’s Mansion by their names. But she invoked the 28 years it’s been since Florida has elected a Democrat to the Governor’s mansion.

She argued that while the current Governor, Ron DeSantis, is a bully, the problem is bigger than him.

“Our democracy is on the line,” Fried said, asserting that Republicans are limiting access to abortion, rights to protest, and the ability to learn the unvarnished truth about history. “We are going backward, and as the only Democrat that has been able to win our state in the last 20 years, I know what it takes.”

Deerfield Beach City Commissioner Bernie Parness introduced her. Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, now running for Florida’s 20th Congressional District, attended, as did Margate City Commissioner Joanne Simone.

The crowd — about 70 people — was notably smaller than the one at the same hall when Charlie Crist showed up last July. But unlike his visit, some of Deerfield Beach Democratic Club board members couldn’t hold back.

“Nikki, we need you!” declared Mel Nass, one of the club’s board members.

Her one-hour appearance, during which she took questions, touched on the need to address housing affordability, property insurance, using civil citations for youthful offenses, and getting minority communities the help with government contracts and the loans they need.

The Legislative Sessions during her administration will be most unlike the one that just passed, she said.

“Surfside,” she said, naming the place where 98 people died when a high-rise condo collapsed, “they couldn’t even address Surfside.”

She cited Floridians’ support for constitutional amendments such as legalizing medical marijuana and restoring felons’ voting rights as evidence that the majority of Floridians support the Democrats’ agenda.

“We need a Democrat in this General Election who knows how to win as a Democrat, someone who has stood up for the values that we believe in every single day,” she said, reminding the crowd that she became a Democrat at age 17, unlike Crist, who occupied the Governor’s mansion as a Republican.

Deerfield Beach resident Terry Scott asked her how she would win the Black vote. Fried is already working on that, she said, by increasing the number of Black leaders in the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, hiring a diversity inclusion position, and highlighting how even though 80% of the farmers asking for loans were Black farmers, 80% of the loans went to White farmers.

“It takes somebody like me to uncover that situation and try to fix it,” she said.