In the state of Florida, in the span of about a decade, things have turned from precarious to bad to dire and now worse. What had long been a dependable left-tilting purple state (recall the debacle of 2000) has become one more red than a brick mason’s fingernails. Florida is now such a dependable GOP stronghold the national Democratic party has all but given up.
One of the solutions the state Democrats sought to reverse this hopeless trend was to choose Nikki Fried to run things in the Sunshine State. And after all of her efforts delivering no change whatsoever, the wise leadership of the party leaders just tabbed her to retain her leadership role. The raucous applause at this decision could be heard – from the Florida Republican Party offices.
The Democratic dismay in Florida has been astounding. For the 2020 general election, party officials here were begging the national leadership for help with the election. Among the signs of party neglect was not providing Spanish-speaking assistance in the southern portion of the state. As a result, in the historically blue Hispanic enclave of Miami-Dade County, Joe Biden won by a narrow margin that year after Hillary had won that region by 30 percentage points. When Governor Rick Scott was term-limited and won his Senate seat, along with incumbent Marco Rubio, it became the first time in generations that Florida had two Republican senators – something not seen since the reconstruction.
So the Florida Democrats figured that in order to refloat their party that was in political drydock, they would vote for a new leader, former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. She stepped down from the post in 2022 in order to run for governor and unseat Ron DeSantis. At the time, Fried held the lone Dem seat in Tallahassee when she was replaced firmly by Republican Wilt Simpson, which meant the entire legislature was run by the GOP.
In her bid to run the state, Nikki was soundly defeated that year – in the Democratic primary. Rep. Charlie Crist beat Fried like a rug hanging on a clothesline, 60 percent – 35 percent, so naturally, the state party felt she was just the loser they needed to…run things? And how did the candidate rejected by the Democrat voters perform in her job duties? Well…
Trump won the state, improving his three-point victory in 2020 to a 13 percent advantage in November. Rick Scott easily won his reelection, and statewide the Republicans held entire control as there were no seats flipped by the Democrats. One glaring result was that in Miami-Dade Trump won the county; no Republican had won there since 1988. It would appear that in their fealty to Ms. Fried, the Florida Democrats are beholden to a leader who is unaware of what it takes to win an election.
It is curious the FL Democrats reelected Nikki Fried to run the party, a woman who by all appearances does not know the definition of the word ”winning”. pic.twitter.com/mSEFI7fqf6
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 26, 2025
Since she was named as the party chairperson, Fried’s accomplishments have not been the type to inspire action but more likely to make most people furrow their brows. Her idea was to go with a vulgar catchphrase to motivate the base (Just F–king Vote!), and she wore that very shirt when she got herself arrested at an abortion protest.
One of the more telling decisions was one made that would do little to help the cause of the party, but it displayed the stunted thinking of this leader. She announced they would be making the Florida panther the official mascot of the state party. This was a revealing dose of obliviousness and accuracy; in Florida both the panthers and the Democrats are severely endangered species.
