Nikki Fried hits the ground running as she tries to inspire Florida Democrats

[In It to Win It]

Orlando Sentinel via Yahoo News

Four months into her chairmanship of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried is arguably its most visible leader, a frequent social media poster and sometimes provocateur who seeks to “motivate and energize” a divided and dispirited organization.

“It’s imperative,” Fried told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview. “This is the first time since the 1800s that the Democrats don’t have a statewide elected [position]. So it is even more important that we have an active party, that there is a chair that is visible not just to Democrats in the state of Florida, but to Democrats across the country.”

Fried made headlines in April for her arrest at a Tallahassee protest against the state’s six-week abortion law, for which trespassing charges were later dropped. She also has shifted from being a thorn in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ side at Cabinet meetings when she was agriculture commissioner from 2019 until early this year to the party’s main voice on Twitter, attacking DeSantis and Republicans daily.

But she’s occasionally gotten pushback for tweets, including one earlier this month asking if DeSantis had taken weight-loss drug injections as he prepared to hit the campaign trail

National Democratic donors largely sat out the 2022 races. But Fried insisted that the big donors, both around the country and in Florida, “are all coming back.”

“Every single conversation that I have had, people are excited about the opportunity to win back our state and to make it again a true swing state,” she said. “… Democrats have just failed to live up to the swing-state status. That is going to be regained under my leadership.”