TAMPA, Fla. — With 2024 in sight, Florida Democrats are making a new push to gain back ground after a dismal November 2022 election.
Six months on the job, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman and ex-AG Commissioner Nikki Fried is not sugarcoating things.
“We saw, in November 2022, a destruction of the Florida Democratic Party,” Fried said in an interview with 10 Tampa Bay Thursday. “We’re in a rebuilding stage.”
After a November election that saw Republican dominance in Florida led by a landslide reelection victor by Governor Ron DeSantis and a rapidly growing registered voter-edge in favor of the GOP (now a 560,000+ voter difference.) The state Democratic party is aiming to “Take Back” some ground during a statewide tour to energize their voter base.
“We are committing at least a million dollars right now for voter registration,” says Fried. “We're hitting 17 counties, we're able to get in touch with our volunteers, our grassroots, give them the plan, reinvigorate the energy of the party apparatus. We’re going across our state and talking about the issues that are on the minds of our Floridians.”
Fried says the growing cost of living and property insurance crisis are among those issues at the top of Floridian’s minds.
“You've had for 30 years, one party controlling the state, from the legislature to the governor's office, and they continue to put band aids on this situation,” Fried says of the persistent property insurance problems. Republican state lawmakers who proposed and passed reforms over the past few years, contend it will take time for them to make an impact.
With eyes on 2024, aside from a presidential race that could include Governor Ron DeSantis on the ballot. Dems have sights on the Senate race against Incumbent Republican Rick Scott and potentially two ballot measures now collecting signatures, one for marijuana legalization, the other for abortion rights that could also be on the ballot for voters in 2024.
“It’s obviously a presidential year, you're going to see an increase in numbers regardless, but I do think that you're going to find a more diverse electorate that's going to come out in ’24, a more engaged electorate and ones that really want to take back democracy in our state,” Fried says.
“We as a Democratic party, have an opportunity to not only build our base back up, energize our base, but truly create an umbrella that everybody can feel that we're going to protect them, we're going to fight for them and most importantly we’re going to have solutions to the problems that they are dealing with every single day,” she added.
On the opposite side, Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler responding to the Dems’ tour and highlighting gains in voter registration numbers, says in part "no bus tour, social media posts or $1 million throw-away investment will make a difference."
