Florida Democrats select former state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried as their new party chair.
Fried, 45, outdistanced former state Sen. Annette Taddeo at a special meeting of party members in suburban Orlando, and will replace Manny Diaz. In his resignation announcement letter last month, he listed a number of problems facing the party, including a lack of resources and volunteers and poor messaging.
Within the past few years, Republicans have erased the voter registration advantage in Florida that Democrats held for decades. In the midterm election, longtime Democratic strongholds such as Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties flipped to the GOP, and DeSantis won a landslide reelection victory as he eyes a 2024 presidential bid.
Fried, whose term as agriculture commissioner wrapped up last month, has pledged to rebuild the party “from the ground up,” with a focus on voter registration. As the only statewide elected Democrat, Fried was a fierce critic of DeSantis, often challenging him on policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic and later on a law critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
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