Nikki Fried calls Ron DeSantis ‘biggest loser’ in debate, says Florida is tired of his leadership

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.”