Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Chair Nikki Fried held a press conference following yesterday’s election results throughout the state of Florida.
Fried reported that it was a big win for Democrats in the Sunshine State and a bad night for former President Donald Trump (R) and Republicans alike.
“So, what we saw last night: Donald Trump is in trouble in the state of Florida. Despite being the presumptive nominee, Trump barely secured 80% of the vote after receiving 94% of that vote in 2020. One in five Republicans voted against Donald Trump and even Nikki Haley received a significant portion of the votes last night even after being out of the race for a few weeks,” said Fried.
She continued by touting the results for Democrats in local elections.
“And what happened here in the state of Florida? When it came to municipal elections, we had some tremendous successes all across the state. The Florida Democratic Party was proud to directly support seven candidates – who were newly announced and launched [in the] early part of this year – our take back global efforts. Four out of seven of our supported candidates won their elections last night. Some of them were flipping seats, some were retentions,” said Fried.
She would go on to report the numbers that the FDP contested.
“Democrats won a majority of the seats that we contested last night despite still having a GOP primary. We took 55% of the contested primaries and local elections and saw lower turnout for Donald Trump than in 2020. If this pattern holds in November, we will see tremendous Democratic wins up and down our slate. Of approximately 47 races that we had a Democratic candidate and incumbent in last night, Democrats won at least 25 of those, and a few that are going into a runoff. So Democrats had a tremendous night last night and looking forward to showing that Florida continues to be in play, continues to show up, and say that they are frustrated with the status of affairs here in the state of Florida right now.”
Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power provided comment to The Floridian regarding Fried’s statements.
“Anyone trying to spin yesterday as a win [for Democrats] is delusional,” said Power. “We won 42% of the Democratic races Nikki Fried spent time and money trying to defend. The people of Florida are rejecting her radial agenda and her spin.”
Florida Democrats have massive amounts of ground to make up. In 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) defeated former Governor and Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL) by nearly 20 points and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) defeated former Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL) by 16 points.
Republicans currently hold a supermajority state legislature as well.
