Nikki Fried isn’t surprised by Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign turmoil

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried served for four years in the Cabinet with Ron DeSantis. And she’s not surprised the Governor’s campaign for President, in which he’s pledged to “make America Florida,” is troubled, after he delivered on a laundry list of right-wing issues in the 2023 Legislative Session.

“I think that’s exactly why he is collapsing in the polls, because his extreme agenda doesn’t resonate in and around the country and he’s even dropped in the polls here in Florida,” Fried said. “If he had an election (for Governor) today, he would lose, because this is not who Floridians are.”

Fried made the comments as she headed to Clay County for a voter mobilization event.

“You have a state that has 75% of Floridians who do not want a six-week abortion ban, 71% who do not want permitless carry, and the list goes on and on.”

Beyond ideology, Fried says personality is an issue, with the Governor failing the “beer test.”

“There’s no charisma. He’s evil and mean-spirited and he has no desire to interact with people and that’s not what people are looking for in their President,” Fried said “There’s still a beer test and he fails that beer test every single day.”

Fried also believes the Legislature — remarkably compliant to the Governor’s will in recent Legislative Sessions — will develop some backbone in 2024.

“I don’t see the Legislature falling in line anymore. They’re already feeling like they were forced to vote for his agenda, which is not resonating (with voters back) home,” Fried said.

“Their constituents are asking them about the anti-immigration bill. They’re asking about the abortion ban, they’re asking them about property insurance. And so they feel that the weight of their votes every single day at home and the pressure of voting for a certain Speaker. And then, you know, in two years or four years, whatever their cycle is, I don’t see a world where they’re going to just blindly follow him what they’ve been doing, but he’s going to try.”

Fried believes he’s going to “come back bitter and that’s what a tyrant does.”

“He’s not going to understand his mistakes. He’s going to believe that it was the mistakes of his staff or his team, anywhere but put the blame on himself. And we’ve seen that, time and time again under his administration, he never believes in the concept that the buck stops with him,” she added.

“He just goes off and blames everybody else, and I think that’s the type of personality that we’re going to see. And it’s unfortunate, because at the end of the day, it’s people of our state that are going to suffer because of the way he’s going to come back and govern.”

If polling of the GOP field is any indication, the Governor could be back sooner rather than later. The Race to the White House polling average shows DeSantis at just 15% overall nationally, with Donald Trump at 54% despite four different federal indictments.