MIAMI — Florida Democrats are leaning on their biggest adversary as they seek to revamp their party before 2024: Gov. Ron DeSantis.
After two tough election cycles in a row, including a particularly tough midterm in 2022, the state party has launched an aggressive counteroffensive against DeSantis in an effort to claw its way back from the brink of political irrelevance, seeing the Republican presidential hopeful as number one level as the perfect flower to fuel his political resurgence.
The animosity between Florida Democrats and the state’s powerful Republican governor is not new. What has changed, party officials and operatives said, is that DeSantis’ nascent bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has elevated his platform and allowed him to appeal to national Democrats, including donors, in a way that hasn’t happened in recent years.
“What it’s done for Florida Democrats is one, it’s put fire in our belly to bring it down, and two, it’s absolutely raising the national profile of Florida Democrats, because we’re the front line,” he said. said Nikki, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party. Fried said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
“We live this every day,” he continued. “We live every bill he passes, every budget veto, every crazy decision he’s making with the Department of Education, every single thing he’s doing.”
Since taking over as head of the state party in February, Fried has sought to reshape it as a more aggressive and sharper-tongued political force, hoping to express enthusiasm among grassroots Democratic voters and win back donors who have turned their attention elsewhere in recent years. amid growing skepticism about Democrats’ chances of winning Florida.
Efforts are being made on multiple fronts.
On Wednesday, Fried filed formal complaints against three aides in the governor’s office over allegations they solicited donations for DeSantis’ presidential campaign from lobbyists and lawmakers. DeSantis’ office dismissed those complaints as “politically motivated” and asserted that members of the governor’s executive team have the right to “raise funds, knock on doors or volunteer their free time.”
And on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a first-term Democrat who has earned a reputation as a DeSantis antagonist in D.C., held an ad hoc congressional hearing on what he called “anti-Democrat abuses of power” by part of DeSantis and his allies, using the 90-minute meeting to air a long list of grievances against the governor.
“You have people like Maxwell [Frost] and other state representatives and even other members of Congress, people who would normally be more measured, saying, “Enough.” We’re going to talk and we’re going to get more confrontational,” said Thomas Kennedy, a Florida Democratic National Committeeman who has long been critical of the state party. “The party as a whole has been more aggressive.”
Kennedy, a prominent activist who was barred from attending the governor’s news conferences last year after being kicked out of multiple events, said DeSantis’ presidential bid has fueled that sense of urgency among Democrats. He added that while the Florida governor had long been expected to run for the White House, he has become a more powerful motivator in the weeks since he declared his candidacy.
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“A lot of national groups and entities are looking at Florida in a way that they didn’t look at in 2020 and especially in 2022,” Kennedy said. “They look at it and say, ‘If we don’t at least check these people, check these far-right figures who are starting to create a laboratory of extremist politics in Florida, the Florida of today could become the America of tomorrow. “
What’s different this time?
It’s a strategy that hasn’t necessarily worked wonders in the past. Charlie Crist, the former congressman and Democratic candidate for governor last year, tied his campaign to the idea that Democrats must stop DeSantis in 2022 before he has a chance to run for president. He struggled to raise even a fraction of DeSantis’ fundraising and lost that race by a 19-point margin.
So far, Democrats say, there is at least some reason for optimism. Democrat Donna Deegan’s victory in Jacksonville’s mayoral race in May was held up by many in the party as an early sign that her losing streak may be coming to an end.
And Fried said he has received assurances from President Joe Biden and Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison that national Democrats still plan to compete in Florida in 2024.
The DNC recently began running a digital ad in key battleground states, including Florida, targeting several Republican presidential candidates about their anti-abortion positions. That includes DeSantis, who signed a six-week ban on the procedure in April, though that law has yet to go into effect.
Of course, Democrats still have a lot of ground to make up. The 2022 midterm elections in Florida were nothing short of devastating for Democrats; DeSantis won re-election in a landslide, and Republicans captured supermajorities in both houses of the state Legislature, as well as control of all statewide elected offices.
Since then, the Florida GOP has continued to expand its voter registration lead in the state, with the latest data available this week showing nearly 500,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. And Republicans have an economic advantage that even Fried acknowledged would be nearly impossible for his party to offset.
“Are we going to fundraise with the Republicans? No,” he told the Herald. “That’s not in the game plan. That is difficult. It’s hard to grow when you don’t have one at the state level [elected official]. It’s very easy when you have a governor and two US senators.”
Asked how her party’s finances are currently doing and whether she is on track to close her cash gap with the Florida GOP, Fried noted that the party’s annual fundraising gala in Miami Beach next month is already ‘had sold out, but admitted that strengthening the party’s finances is “still going to take time”.
“The money will come this year,” he said.
There are other challenges as well. Several Democrats, including Fried, acknowledged that the party’s field program — the operation concerned with persuading and mobilizing voters — is still far from where it needs to be, and others noted that Democrats have not yet they have a clear idea of who to present. against Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott next year.
There’s also the lingering question of whether Florida’s drift to the right in recent years is more than a temporary hiccup for Democrats.
“If Florida Democrats are trying to rebuild their much-shrinking party after the bombardment they took last year, they’re way off the mark given the Republican Party’s growing lead in voter registration,” said the Republican Party of Florida in a statement to the Herald. “Florida voters register Republican because they agree with our strong policies that keep Florida free. It’s not a slogan, it’s a way of life.”
Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic pollster who helped former President Barack Obama win Florida in 2008 and 2012, said any successful effort by Democrats to bring the state back into play will require more than aggressive campaigning of counter-message against DeSantis.
“When there’s a massive, multibillion-dollar investment to try to win Florida that’s sustained over time, that’s when I think we can say Florida is potentially on the line,” Amandi said.
“Until that happens, unfortunately for Florida Democrats, there’s a lot of well-intentioned talk that’s not backed up by what a campaign needs to be successful, which is money, messaging and a new brand, because the Democratic brand in Florida, for better or for worse, it’s a damaged brand”.
©2023 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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