![FriedNikki_082222ap,jpg](https://floridapolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FriedNikki_082222apjpg-1280x720.jpg)
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried doesn’t think Gov. Ron DeSantis will be President. On the heels of DeSantis’ performance in the first Republican presidential debate, she guesses that most of Florida has grown skeptical of his leadership.
“The people of our state see through his policies,” Fried said. “That’s why if his election was today again, he would be losing here in the state of Florida.”
Fried said DeSantis’ dominance of Florida politics in recent years may be coming to a close. She noted no candidates on the debate stage discussed “wokeness,” an obsession for the Governor in recent years.
“That was something that he talked about literally every single day multiple times,” Fried said.
But what does that mean for Florida? If DeSantis cannot win the Republican nomination for President, he presumably will serve out his term as Governor until January 2027.
Fired said it’s going to be up to the Florida Legislature and Republicans here to decide whether to allow DeSantis to continue dominating policy discussions or to rein in his most unpopular policies.
“That’s going to be up to the Republican Party of Florida, whether or not they continue to just blindly follow his leadership that is requiring them to go home into their districts and have to defend a six-week abortion ban, have to defend a permitless and trainingless carry state at this point, have to defend the destruction of our higher education system and K-12, have to defend banning of books,” she said.
Meanwhile, she said Democrats feel more energized in the state as DeSantis flails.
“This is the type of energy that we need, because when you energize our base, it is electrifying,” Fried said. “It is also contagious. And so people are coming to our events all across the state and are hearing our message.”
Of note, the next big test for Florida Democrats specifically may not be the Presidential Election. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, won election in 2018 by a narrow 10,033 votes in 2018. But since then, Republicans have grown a voter registration advantage in Florida of more than a half a million votes.
Scott is also up for re-election in 2024.
“We are working on reinvesting in the party structure. we’re reinvesting in our base, reinvesting and building our bench,” Fried said. “That is how we’re doing this differently. We’re going to be knocking on doors. We’re going to make sure that the message is concise, that we are organized and that we are coalescing behind a candidate early for the U.S. Senate race.”
That statement seems notable days after Fried and the state party welcomed former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s entry in the Democratic Primary for Senate.
But the party continues to heavily discuss DeSantis and his performance. Fried called DeSantis the biggest loser in the debate, largely because he was largely ignored by other candidates.
“He had to have a breakout moment last night and he just didn’t do that,” she said. “He barely showed up to the debate stage last night, and had less time than other candidates that were on the stage.”
She said voters should be wary of what DeSantis did boast about, including suspending Democratic state attorneys in Florida.
“Hear what he said last night. If he was elected President, he would do this across the entire country,” she said. “So across the entire country that has democracy, that has the ability to elect their local State Attorneys or District Attorneys, that he’s going to come in and be a large hand of government, a strong hand of government, coming in and removing local electeds in those states.”
8 comments
PeterH
August 24, 2023 at 12:28 pm
From CNN …. This sums up DeSantis’s clown performance.
“ Time and again DeSantis came off as stilted. He consistently chose to ignore the question being asked and pivoted instead to overly rehearsed responses from debate prep that were devoid of passion or compassion and merely meant to check MAGA boxes. By adhering to those well practiced responses, DeSantis demonstrated a lack of political agility, missing opportunities to connect with the audience.”
Thomas Kaspar
August 24, 2023 at 1:16 pm
A loser opines and no one gives a damn .
My Take
August 24, 2023 at 1:57 pm
Keep kicking him to the curb, Nikki!
Thomas Kaspar
August 24, 2023 at 9:47 pm
Speaking of kicking, wanna buy some pictures of my feet?
My Take
August 25, 2023 at 11:34 am
Cloven?
Leonard
August 25, 2023 at 7:26 am
The only Democrat in Florida that knows more about being a loser than Nikki—is Andrew Gillum. If “the people of our state see through his policies”—why does DeSantis consistently poll over 50%? DeSantis continues to be one of the most popular and effective Governor’s in America….meanwhile the Ds in Florida continue to be ineffective and completely out of touch with the values of the overwhelming majority of Floridians.
Cheesy Floridan
August 25, 2023 at 10:31 am
I disagree with you. Andrew Gillum lost by about 34k votes. DeSantis did win by a landslide against Charlie C. but Charlie was a weak candidate against DeSantis, didn’t have a lot of support nationally and money wise, and dems didn’t show up on election day. In a state of 22 million and counting, only 4 million people voted for DeSantis. So the “majority” or Floridians in my opinion do not support what DeSantis is doing. DeSantis also realy didn’t run on what he would do his 2nd term, he ran on what he did well in his first term. And I admit he did some good things in term 1 but term 2 he is horrible.
Chopperjohn
August 25, 2023 at 10:32 am
Could Jacob what’s his name make himself anymore inconsequential by covering what the most inconsequential nobody has to say?
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