ORLANDO, Fla. — Former agriculture secretary Nikki Fried will be in charge of the state party as Florida Democrats attempt to pull themselves out of their worst political position in years.
“I’m not even going to say we’re turning a chapter,” Fried told state party members at their meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Maitland. “30 years of losses? The book is closed.”
Fried, 45, rebounded from her Democratic primary loss to Charlie Crist in the governor’s race last year to become state party’s new chair, taking in 52% of the vote in what had become a heated campaign to succeed former chair Manny Diaz.
Fried, of Fort Lauderdale, was a late entry to the race, announcing her bid less than two weeks ago.
Former state Sen. Annette Taddeo had gained the backing of legislators including state Rep. Anna Eskamani and state Sens. Linda Stewart, Geraldine Thompson and Victor Torres.
But Fried quickly got the backing of dozens of county party officials, who made up the bulk of votes for chair.
Broward County party chair Rick Hoye, another candidate for chair, gave Fried a huge boost by dropping out during his nomination speech and endorsing her.
“We’re going to take it to (Gov.) Ron DeSantis every day,” Fried told the crowd after her win. “And we’re going to make sure that (U.S. Sen.) Rick Scott goes back home to Naples.”
Diaz resigned just two years into a four-year term in December following his party’s dismal showing in the 2022 election. Republicans DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio won reelection by double-digit margins as the GOP won super majorities in the Legislature.
Fried acknowledged in an interview with the media that Democrats “had a horrific November election…. The Titanic has hit the iceberg. But this is an opportunity for us to bring in new leadership, new ideas, new perspectives, and make sure that we’re doing the work on the ground.”
She said her first order of business was to “unite the party” after garnering an often intense opposition from some party members.
Seminole County Democratic officers Jeff Wilkinson and Connie Stolp said in a statement that Fried “turned her back” on the party’s state Senate candidate Patricia Sigman in 2020 because of a friendship with GOP state Sen. Jason Brodeur, adding she “put her Republican friends first.”
“These elections sometimes can be contentious, a lot of emotions fly,” Fried said. “But when Democrats come together, and we lift each other up, we work together to make sure that Democrats are getting elected up and down the ballot,”
Asked about the Seminole officials’ accusations of favoring Republican “friends,” Fried said that as the only Democrat in the Florida Cabinet, she had long been the party’s “standard bearer” against DeSantis and Republicans.
“In 2020 and 2022, I worked across the state up and down the ballot, endorsing candidates, giving personal dollars, giving my (committee) dollars, and being there for candidates that sometimes had no one else to even talk to,” Fried said.
Fried said she wanted to restructure the party’s structure and bylaws, and while she targeted Scott’s reelection in her victory speech, she later said her initial goal for the party was to be seen as making progress in down-ballot races.
“If we are able to do that for the ‘24 election, that is a huge win,” she said. “... We’re building for not only ‘24, but for the next decades ahead.”
She also said she would make up for national donor dollars drying up in 2022 by going “back to the people.”
“We’re gonna do low-dollar donations, make sure that people are invested in what we’re doing here on the ground,” she said. “... And at the end of the day, when we are showing success, when we are showing that we’ve got a plan for success, the donors will be here and the people will be with us.”
Orange County state committeeman Ricky Ly, who endorsed Taddeo, said he hoped the party could come together following the vote.
“At the end of the day, we all know that no matter who is chair, nothing will change if we don’t get involved and make our voices heard and say enough is enough,” Ly said.
Eskamani, though, called Fried’s win “a lost opportunity in not electing a lifelong Democrat and organizer in Annette Taddeo. It was a close race and I remain committed to fighting for everyday people and holding corporations accountable despite any direction my party decides to go.”
Florida Republicans met last week in Orlando to choose former vice chair Christian Ziegler as their new leader. The party described both Fried and Taddeo as “grifters” in a statement Saturday.
Ziegler told WESH-2, “Until we get every Democrat out of office and no Democrat considers running for office, we’re going to continue to step on the gas and move forward in Florida.”
