Democrat Derek Reich signs up for rematch against Fiona McFarland

Derek Reich jumped into a race against an incumbent late in 2022 and never matched his opponent’s fundraising.

But as the Venice Democrat launches another campaign against Rep. Fiona McFarland in House District 73, he expects attracting donations will be easier than ever.

“It is much easier to fundraise with what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida and what Fiona McFarland has enabled,” Reich said. “Abortion is completely banned, essentially. People around the New College community are fired up.”

He’s running in a district where voters in 2020 were closely divided between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. But it’s also where McFarland in November beat him by 11 percentage points in 2022.

The state, though, is in a different place in the wake of GOP supermajorities in the Florida Legislature serving DeSantis’ presidential ambitions, Reich said. It’s something he feels as a social studies teacher every day.

For starters, new guidelines for teaching Black history and a prohibition on instruction about sexuality and gender means there are Supreme Court cases that are no longer included in state curricula. While state guidelines infamously inserted language asking history teachers to tell students slaves learned skills that could be used for their “personal benefit,” Reich notes what was dropped from the syllabus.

Teachers are longer supposed to teach about the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, a change proposed by state officials well before the Dobbs decision reversed the landmark ruling last year. Teachers also aren’t supposed to teach about Johnson v. Texas, which made clear that flag burning protests were protected by the First Amendment.

“I’d never burn the American flag but students should understand what their constitutional rights are,” he said.

He also said he’s stood in front of a class too often when active shooter protocols go into effect at schools. “The abject fear when students look at me, it shows me we have failed as a society,” he said. “I know that fear, and now we are letting anyone in the street carry a gun.”

Reich believes DeSantis’ policies in education achieve exactly what the Governor claims they combat: indoctrination.

He also considers a six-week abortion ban, when combined with a requirement of two doctor’s visits and a 24-hour waiting period before a procedure, a complete prohibition.

Of note, McFarland didn’t vote on the final version of that bill. But Reich said his real frustration with the incumbent is her silence. Similarly, he said much of the Sarasota community remains incensed DeSantis has forced a major shift in direction at New College of Florida to impose a conservative agenda while McFarland did nothing to criticize that.

“She is silent on every issue,” Reich said.

He compared her quietness on DeSantis vetoing most Sarasota spending to Sen. Joe Gruters’ comments. Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, vocally admonished the Governor, a member of his own party. McFarland, meanwhile, endorsed DeSantis for President.

But can Reich publicly make his case? He drew little attention from Tallahassee last election cycle, and entered the race months before the General Election. But he said the first campaign taught him a lot. He set up a political committee, the Freedom First Fund, in September last year, very late in the cycle. He only raised $4,400 through that account, but it remains active.

He hopes an early start will allow him to be more competitive, and that voters who want change will be more energized in 2024.

“I was born and raised here, and my family has owned a small business 40 years,” he said. “This community is my soul. We need someone speaking up for the community on every issue, and not someone who just sees this as a stepping stone to Vern Buchanan’s congressional seat.”