Florida Democrats lost ground at all government levels following Tuesday’s Midterm Election. For the party to have any hope of clawing back power next time, there needs to be a change in leadership, according to outgoing Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
In an interview with CBS Miami investigative reporter Jim DeFede, Fried indicated she was weighing whether to fight to take control of the Florida Democratic Party from its current Chair, Manny Diaz.
DeFede shared excerpts of his talk with Fried Wednesday on Twitter.
“I care deeply for the people of my state and I’m heartbroken for what happened last night,” she said. “Obviously we have some issues with the structure of the Democratic Party, (and) I’m trying to figure out what’s best for the party.”
Fried later took to Twitter to say she wouldn’t be pursuing the position.
“Appreciate the love, but I am NOT running to be Chair of (the Florida Democratic Party),” she said. “A lot of things need to change to restore our winning coalition from 2018 — and I will continue fighting for that — just not by taking over the party.”
The only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, Fried will soon leave office in accordance with the state’s resign-to-run law after her unsuccessful bid for the party’s nomination in the 2022 Governor’s race.
Her successor in the Agriculture Commissioner role is Senate President Wilton Simpson, whose entry to the Cabinet will place every statewide office in GOP hands.
Election Day was a bloodbath for Democrats, who lost four incumbent seats in the Legislature — two in the Senate, two in the House — and lost eight other contests for open seats.
Those losses expanded the majority Republicans lawmakers already enjoyed in Tallahassee to supermajorities in both chambers — controlling each by a two-thirds margin — and prompted Democratic leaders like Miami Gardens Sen. Shevrin Jones to call for a recalibration of the party’s strategies.
“Democrats have taken large swaths of the electorate for granted, chased the ‘shiny objects’ of the day from a messaging standpoint — oftentimes landing on disjointed, tone-deaf themes — empowered by the same few consultants despite loss after loss, and failed to build a sustained presence and organization in communities across the state,” he said in a scathing screed Wednesday.
Florida Democrats must commit to playing “the long game,” Jones said, if the party ever hopes to “change course in the foreseeable future.”
Part of that long game may involve Diaz’s ouster, Fried told DeFede.
“The coup is reportedly already underway to amass the required votes to take Diaz down,” DeFede said, referring to a potential move by the party’s Executive Committee to vote him out.
Diaz is a former two-term Mayor of Miami. He took the chairmanship of the Florida Democratic Party less than two years ago, on Jan. 9, 2021. His current term doesn’t end for another two years.
But calls for him to leave early have been coming for months. In late October, POLITICO reported that Democratic National Committee member Thomas Kennedy demanded Diaz’s resignation the day after the 2022 election.
NBC News reported Diaz is now considering it after Tuesday’s crushing defeat, citing an unnamed “confidant who was not authorized to speak on his behalf.”
Diaz has maintained the difficulties the party is facing aren’t his fault alone. On Tuesday, he shared a memo with reporters noting that national Democratic groups spent just $1.35 million in Florida during this election cycle compared to almost $59 million in 2018.
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