FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried said Wednesday that Florida Democrats should nominate a female candidate for every statewide office this year, arguing it would help her party win each of the four contests.
“What power that would show if we had an all-female ticket and all three of the other candidates [were women]. Whew!” she said during a roundtable discussion with Black community activists and business owners in Oakland Park.
So far, the Democrats have a highly competitive race for governor featuring two women and one man, but no top-tier candidates have come forward to run for attorney general, chief financial officer or agriculture commissioner.
Fried told the Black leaders, most of whom were women, that she’s been recruiting candidates for all three offices. She has one — “I’ve got an attorney general. I know who she’s going to be” — but hasn’t succeeded in finding candidates for CFO or agriculture commissioner. Later, Fried said she expected the A.G. candidate to announce soon, but declined to identify her.
Fried said she sought to keep a clear path for the Democratic nomination for governor, and wanted her two main competitors to stay out of the race. She said supporters of hers tried to keep Congressman Charlie Crist and state Sen. Annette Taddeo from entering, to no avail.
During the question-and-answer part of the roundtable, Narnike Grant, secretary of the Democratic Haitian American Caucus of Florida, told Fried that someone from her campaign should “get with” someone from the Crist campaign to let him know his time has passed.
Fried’s response: “I tried. I tried before, and not just me. There are a lot of people who have tried,” she said, adding that those conversations were held “with Charlie before he got in and certainly tried to keep Annette out.”
Democratic field
Crist announced his candidacy in May 2021, Fried announced in June, and Taddeo announced in October. All had spent months running unofficially before formally entering the race.
A major downside of primaries, Fried said, is that many people who are able to provide major financial support have told her they don’t want to get involved until the Democrats pick a nominee in the August primary, allowing Gov. Ron DeSantis more time to build his campaign war chest.
Fried, the current state agriculture commissioner and only statewide elected Democrat; Crist, a congressman from St. Petersburg, and Taddeo, a state senator from Miami-Dade county are all seeking the state’s top job instead of running for re-election.
Democrats haven’t won a major statewide Florida election since 2012. In the 31 statewide elections from 2002 through 2020, Democrats have won just six, with female candidates winning and losing.
Some political strategists believe this time could be different, with a large turnout of women inclined to vote for Democrats if the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis enact a new law limiting access to abortion, and especially if the U.S. Supreme Court eliminates or scales back abortion rights.
Crist competition
Besides expressing a wish that Crist hadn’t entered the race, Fried portrayed herself as someone who has new and fresh ideas, but always espoused Democratic ideals. She contrasted herself with Crist, who’s held a range of elected offices for decades — mostly when he used to be a Republican.
While not mentioning Crist, Fried criticized his decades in elected office. “I am not a career politician… If we are talking in another 30 years and I am [running for office], shoot me,” she said, adding, “I do not want to be doing this for life.”
She was more direct when asked how she’s different from Crist.
“Let’s start with the fact that I’m a lifelong Democrat,” she said. “Let’s start with the fact that I’m not going to come here today and tell you what you want to hear and then go and do something different. What you see is who you get. I have been consistent on these issues literally my entire life.”
Crist, a three-term Democratic member of Congress, was the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor. He was the state’s Republican governor from 2007 until 2011, after serving as a Republican state senator, education commissioner and attorney general.
Challenge
Several people at the roundtable were blunt with Fried in describing a key challenge. Though she’s the only statewide elected Democrat, and has fashioned herself as an outspoken critic of DeSantis and the Republican Legislature since taking office in 2019, many people have no idea who she is.
Sandra Cherfrere, president of the Democratic Women’s’ Club of Greater Broward County and an associate professor of criminal justice at Broward College, cited students.
“They don’t know you. They don’t know your name. They don’t know who you are,” she said.
College students are “a voting bloc that you can have.”
Twana Brown and Demetria Plummer, the chef-owners of the Pots & Pans Cafe in Oakland Park where the event was held, said they always vote in Democratic primaries.
Neither had heard of Fried until a call came to book the restaurant for the candidate’s roundtable.
Roundtable
Tonya Edwards, a Fried supporter and the host, invited the small group to the Oakland Park restaurant. Some supported Fried; some hadn’t made up their minds.
Participants said they were gratified that Fried showed up — condemned what they said is a tendency of politicians to visit the Black community at election time when they need votes, then fail to return until they’re looking for support in the next election.
“A lot of us are not happy with what’s going on and we want a candidate who is willing to listen and willing to understand where the [community] is coming from,” said Narnike Grant, warning candidates who do that: “We won’t be so nice.”
To Fried, she said: “Don’t leave and not come back and don’t leave and not seek feedback…. That’s what we notice from a lot of candidates. They don’t really get down in the trenches with people.”
Sharon Alexander, who lives in Fort Lauderdale but described herself as living in the 33311 Zip code, a phrasing used by many Black residents of central Broward, said the community needs to be heard and Black residents need a voice at the table when decisions are made.
“We see a lot of that in the community with a lot of politicians who come in because they need a vote to get into office, but when they get into office they forget you,” she said. “They can’t win without us. They need to understand us.”
Alexander said she walked into the gathering undecided about the governor’s race. “She convinced me today to be a supporter. She convinced me to go and share with my community that we need to support her.”
Alexander said she liked that Fried listened to a range of issues and didn’t just talk about herself. “Not the typical run of the mill candidate that gives you fluff and talks to you and not listen to you.”
Monalisa Weber, a former probation officer, helps people navigate the criminal justice system in South Florida and has started a series of community gardens. She said she was glad she was invited. “I wouldn’t have thought that I’d have been sitting here with someone running for governor,” she said. “I’m kind of like, holy damn, I was invited to this.”
Weber said she liked a lot of what she heard from Fried. “I saw her passion when she was speaking. She caught my attention.” Still, she said, she doesn’t know who she’ll support. “I don’t know yet. I really don’t.”
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