By Lorenzo W. Snelling | Special to Le Floridien
Comparing Florida to a communist regime under Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said 2024 is the year Democrats are seeking to break the GOP’s stranglehold on the state.
Fried, one of DeSantis’ most vocal critics and who finished second in the 2022 Democratic Primary gubernatorial race, brought the FDP’s Take Back Florida tour, which encourages people to register to vote, last week to Katz restaurant and lounge in North Miami.
Fried said the 2022 midterm elections were distratious for Democrats and the organization wants to avoid another disappointment during the 2024 Presidential election.
For starters, Fried said the FDC is spending over $1 million for a statewide voter registration drive.
“We never want to have election results like that again,” said Fried, former Florida Agriculture Commissioner. “If we are going to take back the state, we need to go all out in the communities. We are investing $1 million in voter registration.”
Fried said though DeSantis beat former governor Charlie Crist in 2022 by a landslide by over 1 million votes (20 points) other races won by Republicans throughout Florida were by smaller margins.
“It’s time for us to start knocking on doors and get people to register to vote,” Fried told a crowd of about 63 people. “DeSantis didn’t win by 20 points, we lost by 20 points because not enough people went out to vote.”
The Take Back the State tour includes stops in communities in Miami-Dade and Broward, Collier, Hernando Clay Counties, and cities like Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Myers.
A coalition of diverse groups were on hand for the tour at Katz, that are impacted by new state laws pushed by DeSantis and other GOP members including anti-immigration laws, a controversial African-American history course that teaches students slaves benefited from slavery by learning job skills and not expanding health care to the most needy Floridians.
And women’s rights to an abortion was limited with an abortion ban after 6 weeks of pregnancy.
The Democratic Haitian American Caucus of Florida, African-American, Caribbean and Latin groups and the Florida Chapter of the Asian Democratic Club were all behind Fried, but turning Florida counties blue won’t be an easy task.
“The chair has all the tools to take back Florida,” said DHACF President Dr. Flore Lindor Latortue. “We will not back down until we are a blue state. When we show up [at the polls], we win.”
Fried said Democracy in Florida is being threatened by the GOP.
She said immigrants and their ancestors left their communist countries to come to Florida for a brighter future.
But the new immigration law and DeSantis sending migrants to Massachusetts and California sweep them back to the tumultuous times they endured in their home countries.
“Call Florida a regime,” Fried said. “Your ancestors made a choice 20 or 30 years ago to leave your country for a better life for them and their families. Now we are stuck with this guy who wants to send us back home.”
Fried said, though, DeSantis’ campaign for U.S. President is struggling, and with former President Donald Trump, who leads in most of the early polls for the GOP nomination, facing four indictments, the Florida governor could emerge as the front runner.
She said during the first GOP debate last week, DeSantis told moderators and a national TV audience he would impose the same laws in Florida to the rest of the country if he’s elected president.
“We can’t afford this,” Fried said. “Democracy is at stake here.”
State Representative Dotie Joseph, a Haitian-American Democrat from North Miami, is also a vocal critic of DeSantis for his Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which limits school lessons on racism, and for not addressing the affordable housing and property insurance issues.
She said the smaller margins of the election results last year can be improved in 2024.
“Deciding votes for those elections were about 300,000 total,” she said. “We can make up the difference with one neighborhood. We need to show up, so get out and vote.”
Roberto Ramierez, a Miami resident part of a Hispanic group encouraging people to vote, said the anti-immigration laws affect his family and friends.
The 67 year-old retired truck driver said it’s time for a change in government.
“It’s not good business with what they are doing,” he said. “They are hurting people’s lives. People can’t work here because of the laws.”
Some political analysts give Democrats a slim chance of unseating GOP candidates in Florida in 2024.
The demographic changes and political trends have favored Republicans and the party has records over the years of spending more money on their candidates than Democrats.
They said Democrats have been struggling to find a candidate to unseat Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott; they finally recruited former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to run against the one-term senator.
Mucarsel-Powell served one term in Congress before she was beaten by Republican Carlos Gimenez, former Miami-Dade County mayor, which makes her a vulnerable Senate candidate.
But Democrats must find a way to break the cycle in their efforts to turn seats blue.
“Florida’s elections are expensive and also complicated to campaign in,” Juan Penalosa, former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, said in a statement. “With 30 electoral votes and a population that lines up well with the makeup of the Democratic coalition, Democrats can’t afford to bury it,”
Photo: Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried (left) addressing the audience.
