Nikki Fried speaks about ‘DeSantis 2024’

The idea of DeSantis for four more years does not sit right with Nikki Fried

A Democrat looking at running for Governor urges caution when considering whether the incumbent would serve a full second term if reelected.

Agriculture Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried suggested Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis may not actually be interested in serving the full four years should voters reelect him in November.

“He’s looking at 2024,” Fried told Duval County Democrats during a meeting Monday evening.

“If you think that he’s spending one day in his second administration, you are wrong. He is trying to use the people of our state for his own political power and future,” Fried added.

“If he’s running for President, he will have to declare, you know, right before or right after the November election. This means the first two years, he’s campaigning all over the country. And his last two years, he’s going to be President. So who gets duped? The people of the state of Florida.”

Fried continues to say that DeSantis “needs to be a one-term Governor,” and as Florida’s “only statewide Democrat,” she is getting asked to run by more and more people all the time. The Commissioner has said publicly she has been “looking at” the race since last summer.

Florida Politics reached out to DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice Tuesday morning for comment on Fried’s claim that DeSantis is just looking to run for President and are awaiting a response.

The Fried/DeSantis intrigue is nothing new for Florida political watchers, with the Agriculture Commissioner and the Governor on opposite sides of numerous issues for more than a year now.

The Commissioner also attacked DeSantis for his assertion that corporations shouldn’t “stick their beaks” into political issues, as happened in Georgia over voting law changes.

“He went on to Fox News yesterday, and he yelled at the corporations — ‘if you stick your beak in our issues, we’re going to stick our beak into yours’ — and (tried) to scare and intimidate the corporations from getting involved,” Fried fumed.

“Hey, Governor? Return all of your corporate checks. Because the corporations are the most powerful people in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C.”

A contest between the Governor and the Commissioner could be competitive. Florida Politics commissioned a poll earlier this year showing a race between Fried and DeSantis as a dead heat.

Fried charged as Black pastors call voters bill racist

Bills to restrict vote-by-mail and tighten other voting rules are racist, voter suppression attempts, a coalition of Black pastors, voting groups, and others including Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried charged Thursday.

Fried joined the Equal Ground Action Fund protest and news conference on the steps of the Old Capitol Thursday. She and other speakers denounced SB 90 from Ocala Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley and HB 7041 from Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican, and urged the sponsors to withdraw the legislation.

Fried said the Legislature “is doing everything it can to suppress votes.”

“What this bill does is silence those voices. This bill does nothing good. It silences people who need a voice,” Fried said. “We must stand united to fight for this freedom.”

Fried, the only statewide elected Democrat, did not explicitly charge that the bills were racist. But others at the event did, saying the bills’ purpose is to suppress voting in communities of color, voters who tend to support Democrats.

One pastor also vowed people would return to the streets if necessary to fight against voter suppression.

Fried and the Revs. Derrick McRae of Orlando, R.B. Holmes of Tallahassee, and Reginald Gundy of Jacksonville were joined by representatives of the ACLU of Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund of Florida, and other church, voting, and civil rights groups.

All insisted the bills could not be justified as responses to election fraud because Florida just completed what everyone agreed was the most-secure, smoothest, problem-free election in memory.

Therefore, they argued, the Republican majority designed the bills bills to suppress votes from voters of color, low-income voters, and disabled voters who heavily rely on vote-by-mail and early voting.

The two bills would shorten vote-by-mail request applications from covering two election cycles to just covering the immediate election cycle, meaning millions of voters would have to re-apply every two years instead of every four. They would eliminate or restrict the use of vote-by-mail drop boxes, which became popular last year as people sought to avoid crowds during the height of the coronavirus crisis. The bills would eliminate or restrict the ability to have others turn in ballots for them. The bills would also tighten rules for how voters may identify themselves.

Supporters contend the changes are necessary because abuses are possible under current law and have been seen in other states. Specifically, they warn against “ballot harvesting,” partisan operatives going door-to-door to show people how to vote, in exchange for turning in the mail ballots.

Those at Thursday’s conference weren’t buying it.

“We understand that this process seems to be targeted against communities of color,” said McRae, president of the African-American Council of Christian Clergy and pastor of the Experience Christian Center in Orlando.

Gundy, Florida chair of the African American Ministers in Action, pastor of Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, and representing Faith in Public Life Action Fund, went further, calling the measure “a racist bill” intent on reducing the Black vote.

“Yes, we’ll adjust. Yes, we’ll get to the polls. Yes, whatever suppression you put out there, we’ll find a way to get around it,” Gundy said. “But why create a racist bill — that’s what it is — that will suppress people from going to the polls?”

Gundy warned the bills could spur another round of protests.

“We’ve been told we have to obey just law. But we have not been told we have to obey unjust law. If that means we have to get back in the streets, we will. If that means we have to do what we need to do to get you to listen to us, we will,” Gundy said.

He called Baxley out by name. Gundy said he accepted that Baxley is a man of faith, and would pray for him to conclude that the bill is a mistake and withdraw it.

“You, Brother Baxley, by doing that, prepare to stand before God some day and say I did what was right,” Gundy said. “Brother Baxley, let me tell you what I want you to know. We love you. We don’t hate you. We need you.”

Nikki Fried calls out Governor Ron Desantis and challenges him

Nikki Fried, has announced a bid to challenge DeSantis for governor in next year’s election by releasing a sympathetic video towards those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic on her Twitter handle. She claims that Governor Ron DeSantis is not empathetic towards the covid-19 victims as she says, “This pandemic has been painful as he lashes out on everyone else like he is the victim, but we all know who the real victims are.”
Even though Nikki Fried did not mention former President Donald Trump by name, she unveils Ron DeSantis’s unwavering loyalty towards Donald Trump.
“Every Floridian who has lost a loved one, lost a job, lost a way of life, this has been so much harder than it had to be, and we know why – blind allegiance to an insurrectionist,” she says. She further says that “Florida can and will do better. Continue to fight for you and hold the governor accountable.”
Nikki Fried’s short clip looks more like a political advertisement as it was paid for by Florida Consumers First, Nikki Fried’s Political Committee. Nikki’s spokesman Max Flugrath said that Nikki Fried wanted to show Florida how she will continue to lead. He further said that Nikki has no intentions of lashing out or contextualizing the Covid-19 pandemic as her political campaign. “Commissioner Fried wanted Floridians to know they have an elected official who has been listening, that she knows how difficult this pandemic has been and feels their pain,” Nikki Fried’s spokesman Max Flugrath said.

Guttenberg, the mother of Jaime, 17 who was killed in the Parkland school shooting stated that Florida would have been at a better place right now if it had Governor Nikki Fried as opposed to Governor Ron DeSantis. She further said that Nikki Fried is the only statewide elected official who has spoken up about the ravages of the COVID-19 Pandemic and that Florida has received a good response from her.
However, the Republicans fired back at Nikki Fried as Joanna Rodrigues, a spokeswoman for the Republican Governors Association said that Nikki Fried is desperate to be coroneted as the Democrat nominee for governor. She further said that Nikki has not made her intentions clear but she is rather hiding behind a veiled announcement video filled with politically motivated lies.
Since Governor Ron DeSantis is a close ally to former President Donald Trump, DeSantis is required to maintain a strategic distance from a genuine essential challenger. DeSantis is supposed to have official aspirations in 2024 if Trump doesn’t run once more for president. However, DeSantis said that he is fully focused on leading the state at the moment and has not yet thought about running for a presidential post in 2024.

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