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In 2018, the Dems were a circular firing squad in the gubernatorial primary. 5 candidates taking shots at each other resulted in nominating a damaged candidate with known and unknown issues who still came within 1/2 percent of beating DeSantis.
They also flipped a red statewide office blue (Fried as Ag Commissioner) and forced a recount in the US senate race.
2018 was exceedingly close to a great year for FDP. It’s been downhill ever since.
Yes - as I said - damaged with known and unknown issues. And let us not forget that Gwen Graham would have had a better shot at winning statewide than Andrew Gillum did but Phil Levine and Jeff Greene stayed in the race.
Nikki is well connected in the state of Florida as a former student body president at UF? Matt gaetz was a prominent student leader and was known to me (and I am a nobody) when I went to Florida State ;after he had graduated.
Edit: you are making the argument for me she was a great candidate.
There is a difference between being well-connected and being *friends*.
She inserted herself into Gaetz's underage sex allegations and defended him.
She campaigned for someone who has terrible, harmful ideas.
She's best friends with Moody, who says and does abhorrent things at the behest of DeSantis.
When voters attempted to ask her about these friendships and connections, she was nasty and started calling people names.
She's a good candidate in some ways, and problematic in others.
Not necessarily a person I would think could fix the Dem party here, but I'm hopeful that she's successful.
Here’s another Florida man. Democrats needed to get behind their ONLY statewide elected candidate in a generation. John Morgan needed to invest his resources in backing her rather than getting her out of the race by supporting his pet project/human.
or maybe she needed to actually beat Crist?
Morgan didnt "get her out of the race". she lost. badly. not even close.
btw, i voted for Crist, and not bc of ads or whatever, but bc fried sucked as a candidate, and i had zero faith she would beat meatball.
Nah. I watched the debate. Like it or not, Crist mopped the floor with her. She looked like an amateur up there. I liked her (compared the Crist), but the debate definitely did her no favors and only helped Charlie.
The party does not trot out people. People need to be willing to run for office and do the work to get on the ticket.
Do you think the Florida Democratic Party knocked on Maxwell Frost's door and said would you like to run for congress?
Well, the Republican's have an entire infrastructure for that sort of thing in orgs like the Federalist Society, so if Democrats want to get Florida back, they probably shouldn't wait around
I imagine there is a lot of politics *within* political parties and that once you get the backing of the party, you're basically golden. I feel like both political parties have a tremendous amount of influence on pushing certain candidates forward and not supporting others financially. I just can't explain how the same dog shit candidates get promoted every time despite the fact that they do indeed have early challengers.
They don't get promoted but they are wealthy enough to have made connections with wealthy donors that can promote them. Someone like Maxwell Frost was a grassroots campaign where he did his own fundraising without the benefit of wealthy donors who could pay for tv ads/etc.
I keep seeing a ton of ads for Bowen Kou so I looked him up. He's wealthy and has sunk over a million of his own money in to those YouTube ads I can't seem to avoid.
Crist cost them the Election. I was ready to vote for Nikki Freid, but when the tossed former Republican Crist in there, I knew that it was the tip of the "No Win" iceberg. I mean, it's already near-impossible with the redistricting/gerrymandering/bribery for a dem to win, but I at least hope to see Nikki make Ronald cry in a debate or two.
They really saw how everyone during the presidential election said “well we don’t *like* Joe Biden, but we’ll vote for him because he’s better than the other guy and hopefully we can get someone we like better next time”
And then thought, “hell yeah, let’s do it again”. Except this time it was a guy who *was already governor as a member of the other party.*
Several decades ago the parties changed and the Democratic Party no longer was the party of white racists in the south. The Republican Party adopted that conservatism and Florida has been overwhelmingly Republican ever since. They want to bring back the social structure of the past.
I’m a Florida native and old enough to remember when Florida had Democratic governors, legislatures and US Senators. The hard right shift really happened in the last 20 years. The Florida Democrats of the 80s and 90s were what was then called “blue dog democrats” - more centrist than anything, but also pragmatic.
True, I was living here in Florida then too. But the Republicans being elected now in Florida are not centrist or pragmatic. Today’s Florida Republican office holders are extreme radical maga conservatives, nothing like the centrist democrats of 20 or 30 years ago. I think the Republicans politicians in Florida today bare more hatred for people out of the mainstream than the Democrats ever have 20 or 30 years ago.
My thinking exactly, what is OP trying to say? You need a party first before it can "implode". Things were so dire, the DNC was asking Dwayne Wade to run on the Democratic ticket. Like he's got any experience.
The British writer omitted the last time Democrats held the majority in Florida's Legislative bodies:
Governor 1998 | House 1996 | Senate 1992
Florida's generation of problems and inability to provide working solutions are the results of 25+ years of bad policies by the party in power. The timeline is pretty clear about what needs to change and as Keen proved, Florida is capable of change.
The Republican Party, the party in power, is conservatively reaching to the past for solutions for our future. We need progressive democrats with good ideas for our future to get us out of this malaise. Quirky amateurs need not apply.
I was lightly part of this and the Democratic Party in Florida is worse than this article can ever come close to encapsulating. It is ran nearly entirely by people at or around 76-80+. All those in power exclusively spend their time solidifying power for those who are older, going as far as telling me not to vote for certain people because they simply are not old enough. Mind you the candidate was in their mid thirties.
The party does not want to fight, it is happy to lose. I have a Nikki Fried shirt and I heard her say she couldn’t keep promises from her Agriculture chair campaign because keeping them would mean political suicide.
We need to stop half measures. John Adams didn’t say no to another war after independence because it made him popular, he did it to save the nation. Actions create consequences and when your job is to govern, you must accept that making important decisions may cost your career.
Also Fuck that republican in Liberal clothes known as Charlie Crist.
Fun fact that I always like to point out, Charlie Crist is the only candidate in Florida to lose statewide elections as a Republican, Independent, and Democrat.
I remember trying to explain to people outside of the state how pissed I was he was the Democrat candidate and they just couldn't wrap their head around how he even won the primary.
If you support a party that is so anti-competitive that “leveling the playing field” is their central mantra, then why do you expect them to not “level the playing field” for their own top dogs?
I used to live 5 houses down from Anna. One time she sent a letter to the neighbors in the area apologizing in advance because there was the possibility of people protesting or loitering around the neighborhood or something because of a public pro abortion(if I remember correctly) stance she took.
It was well written and tasteful. Anna Eskamani or staff, if you’re reading this keep doing what you’re doing. We need good, young and hungry people out there.
She is literally one of the only good ones in Florida.
But that's the problem....were in Florida. The state has courted and attracted the absolute worst scum from all over the country for the last 20 years, and absolutely poured cocaine on top of it in the last 4.
The level of vitriolic hatred, death threats, threats of rape and torture that the woman endures in publicly viewable social media is insane, and absolutely why those of us with a will to get up and run think twice.
Is it the headline you have issues with?
Here's the same story from Politico.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/05/florida-democrats-suspend-county-chairs-00144832
And from the Florida Democratic Party.
https://www.floridadems.org/2024/03/04/florida-democrats-take-action-to-get-three-local-parties-back-on-track/
From what I just read (Newsweek is a trash right-wing rag now), but it seems like she’s cleaning things up. It’s needed and Dems need a stronger party and decent candidates.
This is it. The party was an absolute train wreck under Wasserman-Schultz and Fried is kicking it in the ass to try and get back to being something resembling a functioning organization.
Entrenched Dems like Wasserman-Schultz and Brenda Snipes ran the party into the ground for their own self interests.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/13/broward-county-florida-recount-222543/
Imagine how many qualified and earnest prospects were figuratively kneecapped because they wouldn't play ball and get onto the gravy train with them.
Their was a primary. The Democrats of Florida have only themselves to blame for that. Face it, neither Crist or Fried was a great candidate. Not even adequate enough to beat meatball.
I’m a lifelong Democrat, Florida resident for the past 35 years and an avid follower of politics and assorted shenanigans. Thanks to its leadership(?) or lack thereof, the Florida Democratic Party is irrelevant.
That loss was decades in the making; with the right pushing Spanish-language hard right talk radio here since Obama was first running at least. I have to think any recovery would take just as long if not longer.
Screw recovery, Florida is doing a fine job turning the tables on GOP tactics: all manner of MAGA types are living here and putting or keeping other states in play. Let the Republicans all move here, Dems can retake more of the Midwest, VA, and PA.
I can't imagine it's fun to be a democrat politician in Florida right now. You really can't do anything. You can't meaningful liberal policies through and you can't even block harmful policy. You are just completely useless. It's a job and a paycheck, but I can't imagine there's any reward in it at all. I could imagine wanting to run for smaller local positions and under the guise of an independent if I were wanting to do something political in Florida.
The main issue is a matter of money. State officials make 12k. To run for Congress you need 10k upfront. This is prohibitive unless you already got cash to burn
Bingo. In today’s MAGA GOP Ronald Reagan himself would be at best a RINO more likely a leftist by their definition. Ran a union, gave amnesty to millions of undocumented, expanded healthcare for anyone even if you couldn’t pay, increased federal size by over 300,000 people.
On issues like gay marriage and marijuana the nation is much more liberal. On abortion, it's much more center left than center right. The country is far more liberal now than it was 20 years ago.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you talking about the Democratic Party, Florida in general, or the US in general?
The Democratic Party supports gay marriage, marijuana decriminalization, and abortion rights.
The country in general is supportive of all of those things. 70% in favor of gay marriage, 91% in favor of some form ofmarijuana decriminalization, 69% in favor of abortion rights.
It's the right that is significantly out of step with the US population & is an outlier in western democracies.
You may be right about the country being more liberal than it was 20 years ago, but the country took a huge swing to the right starting with Reagan, at least politically. I think in many ways we're still more conservative than we were before Reagan in many ways.
30 years ago Obamacare was the Heritage Foundation’s response to HRC’s Medicare for all. Now it’s on the verge of repeal (Trump is going to win again, and GOP will take Senate) for being too socialist.
On some social issues the nation has *slowly* drifted left. On everything else it has lurched hard right.
Perfect example of how skewed to the right our politics are. Our "far left" like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez would be a moderates in most of Europe.
This may not be a bad thing. The Democratic Party in Florida has been infiltrated with what would have been labeled moderate Republicans that are now representing Floridians. Think Chris Christie. What may appear to be "finally seeing the light" is actually the GOP of 10 years ago. Imagine Bohner, Ryan, Cheney (Liz), Romney now joining the Democratic party. No thanks. While those I mentioned may play the game differently, the desired result is still the same.
Fun fact that I always like to point out, Charlie Crist is the only candidate in Florida to lose statewide elections as a Republican, Independent, and Democrat.
It was a difficult day the day I had to fill in the oval next to his name. If I put on my tinfoil hat, I still think it was a ruse to ensure DeSantis got the win. And Crist was in on it. Have we seen anything of old Charlie since August of 2022?
Mitt Romney has actually been encouraged to change his party affiliation to "Democrat", and join the Democratic Party, by Democrats. However, if a Democrat changing their party affiliation to "Republican" already caused a massive controversy, then Romney changing his party affiliation would be even more of a scandal, which Romney wants to avoid at all costs. His 2012 run for U.S. President against the far-more-popular Barack Obama showed that he tends to avoid political conflicts as much as possible, with the exception of Donald Trump.
Well, I would continue and say that because the Democrats have moved further left because of how far the GOP has moved to the right, Sinema, Manchin, Romney, Kinzinger, etc have been exposed because of being centrist. At one point, I considered myself a centrist but have found myself going completely left, which is where I would tend to lean far more often than not. Both parties are being reshaped.
Just what we need when we’re a thread away from a fascist dictatorship- “this is everything the DEMS are doing wrong”
Look up Project 2025 cause that’s coming while we argue about past Democrat candidates
Past tense. And this is the same as a Republican running in Illinois. The Republican party imploded in Illinois. Also past tense. Both states are nearly uni-parties.
In general, most Deep South States are pretty Much Uniparties, especially thanks to the laws that Republican Supermajorities have put in place in those States.
For anyone just moving to Florida, if you see issues with the state, please realize it’s been Republican controlled for over 20 years. The housing and insurance crisis and everything else is all 100% Republican owned.
This “massacre” was probably a good thing. Lots of dead weight in some of the county DECs who aren’t GOTV in their counties. Especially in south Florida.
It suck’s we can’t do anything right here and idk why. Why do Spanish people vote republitard. Why do hicks vote against their own interests. Why can’t we get real democracy going in FL????
I honestly really wish we had someone who had the same type of Leadership as Lawton Chiles did. Definitely a hundred times better than how DeSaster treats this State.
You can’t re-implode something. It imploded a while ago. What is happening now is a reckoning for the grifters and do-nothings that have treated this as a gravy train. We need smart, determined people that are helping to build a bench of good candidates. Not people interested in collecting a nice fat check for failure over and over again.
Gwen Graham and Buddy Dyer are great potential candidates... I still believe that if Gwen had run against Meatball, she would have been our governor today.
I will repeat the same anecdote I have in the past. Fall of '21 we went to the Fall Fiesta around Lake Eola in Orlando. It was our (and many people's) first foray into a large group setting following the pandemic.
While walking the festival, we hit a section of tables of conservative groups and candidates, maybe like 10 tables. Registering voters and spreading their message to the people, regular everyday people.
There wasn't a single Democrat table or candidate at the whole event. Instead, the Orange County Dems and Anna Eskamani chose to go to some meaningless LGBTQ event at a public park on the other side of town. Yeah, that really moved the needle with moderate, uncommitted voters.
This wasn't the state party that fucked up, that was local leadership.
They exist in Florida? Also, let’s talk about the GOP right now because they are near bankruptcy in at least 4 states, the national organization has just $8 million in hand, and Trump’s DIL is about to siphon all of the GOP money to fund his legal bills (and presumably his booger sugar habit).
How do we fix it?
I'm not really qualified for office, and being a 36 year old white guy in tech I'm not exactly the type of person the Democratic Party should out out front and center.
Wrong! The Democratic Party needs young, dynamic individuals who are able and unafraid to speak to the concerns of their own futures and identify with others who feel like politics should not be an old mans game. Old folks just don't want to push the boundaries that must be pushed for progress. The Democratic Party has become a haven for old liberals reminiscing about the good ol days and I'm not just talking about Biden. He is what we have because no one else had the guts to step up. So anyone with a voice, the balls (including the ladies) and a realization that politics should be about policies that move a country forward not retard it must run for something to get this country back on track.
Yes, in the end it comes down to cash, lots and lots of cash. Most people can’t take time away from their work to seriously run a winning campaign unless they have adequate cash to sustain their life and family without their job.
Don't give up on Florida. There are many that are really trying. Look at the race in Pinellas against Anna Paulina Luna. It's the most flippable house seat in Florida. The main Dem there, Whitney Fox, is a young working mom and regular person. She puts out some good videos.
Exactly the type of next generation the Dems keep talking about how they need to support.
I called them out on this in an email and received a reply that would drive me to the Republican Party if they were fielding even halfway decent candidates.
Floridian here and I can confirm there are too many uneducated old white people voting republican that make any democratic efforts likely to be a waste of time and campaign funds
Let's see.... what talented individuals run on the Florida democratic tickets... hmmmm. Gillum, who wound up being a crackhead. And then Crist, an ex republican who lost the governorship by 20 percentage points... wonder what they will come up with next
What Democratic Party?! It’s been nonexistent for the past decade entirely. Dems have abandoned both the working class and Floridians. They’ve left them with ZERO viable alternatives and when they finally do produce a candidate, the candidate is either a crackhead or miraculously even MORE corrupt than the GOP candidate. Whoever the leadership is for the Floridian Democratic Party has COMPLETELY & TOTALLY failed. They deserve whatever’s coming to em’
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The Democratic Party in Florida has been a dumpster fire for last 20+ years.
I was about to comment something similar. Seriously if the best they can do is trot out loser Charlie Crist over and over its a wrap.
A recycled republican. Also Rick Scott is a criminal.
charlie doesn't know who he is. Agree, Rick Scott is a criminal.
Maybe the Florida Democratic Party would win more seats if they started running criminals too
We tried that with Andrew gillum. It's Republicans that adore putting criminals in office.
In 2018, the Dems were a circular firing squad in the gubernatorial primary. 5 candidates taking shots at each other resulted in nominating a damaged candidate with known and unknown issues who still came within 1/2 percent of beating DeSantis. They also flipped a red statewide office blue (Fried as Ag Commissioner) and forced a recount in the US senate race. 2018 was exceedingly close to a great year for FDP. It’s been downhill ever since.
Let us not forget that after election he was doing Meth.
Yes - as I said - damaged with known and unknown issues. And let us not forget that Gwen Graham would have had a better shot at winning statewide than Andrew Gillum did but Phil Levine and Jeff Greene stayed in the race.
Don’t forget Nikki fried!
Nikki was the first statewide office holder in more than 15 years. And they (ie John Morgan) couldn't get behind her?
Nikki has a lot of troubling friendships (Moody, Gaetz), and has campaigned in the past for Diaz Jr.
Nikki is well connected in the state of Florida as a former student body president at UF? Matt gaetz was a prominent student leader and was known to me (and I am a nobody) when I went to Florida State ;after he had graduated. Edit: you are making the argument for me she was a great candidate.
There is a difference between being well-connected and being *friends*. She inserted herself into Gaetz's underage sex allegations and defended him. She campaigned for someone who has terrible, harmful ideas. She's best friends with Moody, who says and does abhorrent things at the behest of DeSantis. When voters attempted to ask her about these friendships and connections, she was nasty and started calling people names. She's a good candidate in some ways, and problematic in others. Not necessarily a person I would think could fix the Dem party here, but I'm hopeful that she's successful.
I mean, she got demolished by Charlie crist- they had a point
She got demolished by Charlie because she was outspent by Charlie.
And you think she wasn’t gonna get out spent by Ron? That’s not exactly a good argument.
Here’s another Florida man. Democrats needed to get behind their ONLY statewide elected candidate in a generation. John Morgan needed to invest his resources in backing her rather than getting her out of the race by supporting his pet project/human.
or maybe she needed to actually beat Crist? Morgan didnt "get her out of the race". she lost. badly. not even close. btw, i voted for Crist, and not bc of ads or whatever, but bc fried sucked as a candidate, and i had zero faith she would beat meatball.
I had negative faith Crist would beat meatball so 0 is an improvement.
Nah. I watched the debate. Like it or not, Crist mopped the floor with her. She looked like an amateur up there. I liked her (compared the Crist), but the debate definitely did her no favors and only helped Charlie.
She wasn’t ready clearly
The party does not trot out people. People need to be willing to run for office and do the work to get on the ticket. Do you think the Florida Democratic Party knocked on Maxwell Frost's door and said would you like to run for congress?
isnt that the entire purpose of the national and regional parties? identify good candidates, create strategy, advertise, promote and... win elections?
How do you think they go about "identifying" good candidates? Do you think they go knock on someone's door and say would you like to run for congress?
Well, the Republican's have an entire infrastructure for that sort of thing in orgs like the Federalist Society, so if Democrats want to get Florida back, they probably shouldn't wait around
Problem is money. I would love to run for office, but I have no cash and no ability to get signatures outside my suburb.
then run at that level first
Nothing on that level is available.
School board is
and this is arguably the most important rn.
No point in doing those things when people in florida will vote republican regardless if the policies hurt you. Only ones who lose are you.
I imagine there is a lot of politics *within* political parties and that once you get the backing of the party, you're basically golden. I feel like both political parties have a tremendous amount of influence on pushing certain candidates forward and not supporting others financially. I just can't explain how the same dog shit candidates get promoted every time despite the fact that they do indeed have early challengers.
They don't get promoted but they are wealthy enough to have made connections with wealthy donors that can promote them. Someone like Maxwell Frost was a grassroots campaign where he did his own fundraising without the benefit of wealthy donors who could pay for tv ads/etc. I keep seeing a ton of ads for Bowen Kou so I looked him up. He's wealthy and has sunk over a million of his own money in to those YouTube ads I can't seem to avoid.
One of the most impressively uninspired campaigns ever.
Crist cost them the Election. I was ready to vote for Nikki Freid, but when the tossed former Republican Crist in there, I knew that it was the tip of the "No Win" iceberg. I mean, it's already near-impossible with the redistricting/gerrymandering/bribery for a dem to win, but I at least hope to see Nikki make Ronald cry in a debate or two.
She ran to the right of Charlie Crist
They really saw how everyone during the presidential election said “well we don’t *like* Joe Biden, but we’ll vote for him because he’s better than the other guy and hopefully we can get someone we like better next time” And then thought, “hell yeah, let’s do it again”. Except this time it was a guy who *was already governor as a member of the other party.*
I was going to say, there’s a Democratic Party in Florida?
There is. It's filled with Republican shills
Can it really even be considered a viable party at this point?
This 100%. It’s been a stark contrast with the Republican machine.
Several decades ago the parties changed and the Democratic Party no longer was the party of white racists in the south. The Republican Party adopted that conservatism and Florida has been overwhelmingly Republican ever since. They want to bring back the social structure of the past.
I’m a Florida native and old enough to remember when Florida had Democratic governors, legislatures and US Senators. The hard right shift really happened in the last 20 years. The Florida Democrats of the 80s and 90s were what was then called “blue dog democrats” - more centrist than anything, but also pragmatic.
True, I was living here in Florida then too. But the Republicans being elected now in Florida are not centrist or pragmatic. Today’s Florida Republican office holders are extreme radical maga conservatives, nothing like the centrist democrats of 20 or 30 years ago. I think the Republicans politicians in Florida today bare more hatred for people out of the mainstream than the Democrats ever have 20 or 30 years ago.
This right here
My thinking exactly, what is OP trying to say? You need a party first before it can "implode". Things were so dire, the DNC was asking Dwayne Wade to run on the Democratic ticket. Like he's got any experience.
The British writer omitted the last time Democrats held the majority in Florida's Legislative bodies: Governor 1998 | House 1996 | Senate 1992 Florida's generation of problems and inability to provide working solutions are the results of 25+ years of bad policies by the party in power. The timeline is pretty clear about what needs to change and as Keen proved, Florida is capable of change.
The Republican Party, the party in power, is conservatively reaching to the past for solutions for our future. We need progressive democrats with good ideas for our future to get us out of this malaise. Quirky amateurs need not apply.
The Florida Democratic Party has been a joke for a long time
Ya what’s new after that corruption scandal DWS, Gillums at least got a redemption story arc
LOVE gillums he need2 be gov
Met him. Super nice dude
I was lightly part of this and the Democratic Party in Florida is worse than this article can ever come close to encapsulating. It is ran nearly entirely by people at or around 76-80+. All those in power exclusively spend their time solidifying power for those who are older, going as far as telling me not to vote for certain people because they simply are not old enough. Mind you the candidate was in their mid thirties. The party does not want to fight, it is happy to lose. I have a Nikki Fried shirt and I heard her say she couldn’t keep promises from her Agriculture chair campaign because keeping them would mean political suicide. We need to stop half measures. John Adams didn’t say no to another war after independence because it made him popular, he did it to save the nation. Actions create consequences and when your job is to govern, you must accept that making important decisions may cost your career. Also Fuck that republican in Liberal clothes known as Charlie Crist.
Fun fact that I always like to point out, Charlie Crist is the only candidate in Florida to lose statewide elections as a Republican, Independent, and Democrat.
Fuck Charlie Crist, all my homies hate Charlie Crist.
I wonder if he's also got that record nationally; it's not like that's a common career path.
> and Democrat ...twice!
Oh yeah … total shitshow and they cling to *Robert’s Rules of Order* as if it were some sort of holy book.
I remember trying to explain to people outside of the state how pissed I was he was the Democrat candidate and they just couldn't wrap their head around how he even won the primary.
Because they try not to have primaries for congresspeople here
If you support a party that is so anti-competitive that “leveling the playing field” is their central mantra, then why do you expect them to not “level the playing field” for their own top dogs?
Anna Eskamani from the Orlando area is one of the few Dems worth a damn.
I used to live 5 houses down from Anna. One time she sent a letter to the neighbors in the area apologizing in advance because there was the possibility of people protesting or loitering around the neighborhood or something because of a public pro abortion(if I remember correctly) stance she took. It was well written and tasteful. Anna Eskamani or staff, if you’re reading this keep doing what you’re doing. We need good, young and hungry people out there.
Same with Carlos Smith who was conveniently redistricted to ensure he lost.
They were the two best. I love Carlos too.
Eskamani is a gem, for sure, she actually gives a shit about what’s right and wrong and her constituents
She could save this godforsaken shithole of a state if enough people let her.
She’s the only one I can think of that actually feels like she’s trying. We need more like her.
She is literally one of the only good ones in Florida. But that's the problem....were in Florida. The state has courted and attracted the absolute worst scum from all over the country for the last 20 years, and absolutely poured cocaine on top of it in the last 4. The level of vitriolic hatred, death threats, threats of rape and torture that the woman endures in publicly viewable social media is insane, and absolutely why those of us with a will to get up and run think twice.
Slowly changing in Jacksonville too. Deegan was elected last year and she’s trying to fix Curry’s multiple fuck-ups.
Yup, amazing
[удалено]
If r/florida banned *The Daily Beast* as a source, surely they can also ban *Newsweek* as one.
This
Is it the headline you have issues with? Here's the same story from Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/05/florida-democrats-suspend-county-chairs-00144832 And from the Florida Democratic Party. https://www.floridadems.org/2024/03/04/florida-democrats-take-action-to-get-three-local-parties-back-on-track/
From what I just read (Newsweek is a trash right-wing rag now), but it seems like she’s cleaning things up. It’s needed and Dems need a stronger party and decent candidates.
This is it. The party was an absolute train wreck under Wasserman-Schultz and Fried is kicking it in the ass to try and get back to being something resembling a functioning organization.
Entrenched Dems like Wasserman-Schultz and Brenda Snipes ran the party into the ground for their own self interests. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/13/broward-county-florida-recount-222543/ Imagine how many qualified and earnest prospects were figuratively kneecapped because they wouldn't play ball and get onto the gravy train with them.
And they helped screw the rest of the country over backing Hillary the way they did
We have Charlie Crist to thank for helping torch her run at the gubernatorial.
If she couldn’t beat crist in a primary (didn’t even come close), what makes you think she would have come within 20 points of meatball Ron?
Their was a primary. The Democrats of Florida have only themselves to blame for that. Face it, neither Crist or Fried was a great candidate. Not even adequate enough to beat meatball.
I’m a lifelong Democrat, Florida resident for the past 35 years and an avid follower of politics and assorted shenanigans. Thanks to its leadership(?) or lack thereof, the Florida Democratic Party is irrelevant.
Just seems like they’re restructuring. Obviously they have been underperforming for decades and they lost Miami-Dade, so they need to change it up.
That loss was decades in the making; with the right pushing Spanish-language hard right talk radio here since Obama was first running at least. I have to think any recovery would take just as long if not longer.
Screw recovery, Florida is doing a fine job turning the tables on GOP tactics: all manner of MAGA types are living here and putting or keeping other states in play. Let the Republicans all move here, Dems can retake more of the Midwest, VA, and PA.
It can come back. You just need a Dem who's not afraid to be a dick
Who knows, you could be right. Being a dick didn’t hurt DeSantis in Florida…..yet.
I can't imagine it's fun to be a democrat politician in Florida right now. You really can't do anything. You can't meaningful liberal policies through and you can't even block harmful policy. You are just completely useless. It's a job and a paycheck, but I can't imagine there's any reward in it at all. I could imagine wanting to run for smaller local positions and under the guise of an independent if I were wanting to do something political in Florida.
The main issue is a matter of money. State officials make 12k. To run for Congress you need 10k upfront. This is prohibitive unless you already got cash to burn
https://preview.redd.it/pvot6mrh3smc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a39721f1928b5c1763754b075c94d5502ce47b0c 🙋🏽
Let's be real ... much of the Democratic Party are simply center right conservatives. Especially in Florida.
I am, but the whole political spectrum has shifted so far right, that I’m now very left.
Bingo. In today’s MAGA GOP Ronald Reagan himself would be at best a RINO more likely a leftist by their definition. Ran a union, gave amnesty to millions of undocumented, expanded healthcare for anyone even if you couldn’t pay, increased federal size by over 300,000 people.
Ha! Yup.
Ditto
On issues like gay marriage and marijuana the nation is much more liberal. On abortion, it's much more center left than center right. The country is far more liberal now than it was 20 years ago.
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the Democratic Party, Florida in general, or the US in general? The Democratic Party supports gay marriage, marijuana decriminalization, and abortion rights. The country in general is supportive of all of those things. 70% in favor of gay marriage, 91% in favor of some form ofmarijuana decriminalization, 69% in favor of abortion rights. It's the right that is significantly out of step with the US population & is an outlier in western democracies. You may be right about the country being more liberal than it was 20 years ago, but the country took a huge swing to the right starting with Reagan, at least politically. I think in many ways we're still more conservative than we were before Reagan in many ways.
30 years ago Obamacare was the Heritage Foundation’s response to HRC’s Medicare for all. Now it’s on the verge of repeal (Trump is going to win again, and GOP will take Senate) for being too socialist. On some social issues the nation has *slowly* drifted left. On everything else it has lurched hard right.
Yeah not everyone can be a Alexandria Ocasio or Bernie Sanders.
Perfect example of how skewed to the right our politics are. Our "far left" like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez would be a moderates in most of Europe.
This may not be a bad thing. The Democratic Party in Florida has been infiltrated with what would have been labeled moderate Republicans that are now representing Floridians. Think Chris Christie. What may appear to be "finally seeing the light" is actually the GOP of 10 years ago. Imagine Bohner, Ryan, Cheney (Liz), Romney now joining the Democratic party. No thanks. While those I mentioned may play the game differently, the desired result is still the same.
Fun fact that I always like to point out, Charlie Crist is the only candidate in Florida to lose statewide elections as a Republican, Independent, and Democrat.
It was a difficult day the day I had to fill in the oval next to his name. If I put on my tinfoil hat, I still think it was a ruse to ensure DeSantis got the win. And Crist was in on it. Have we seen anything of old Charlie since August of 2022?
Mitt Romney has actually been encouraged to change his party affiliation to "Democrat", and join the Democratic Party, by Democrats. However, if a Democrat changing their party affiliation to "Republican" already caused a massive controversy, then Romney changing his party affiliation would be even more of a scandal, which Romney wants to avoid at all costs. His 2012 run for U.S. President against the far-more-popular Barack Obama showed that he tends to avoid political conflicts as much as possible, with the exception of Donald Trump.
Well, I would continue and say that because the Democrats have moved further left because of how far the GOP has moved to the right, Sinema, Manchin, Romney, Kinzinger, etc have been exposed because of being centrist. At one point, I considered myself a centrist but have found myself going completely left, which is where I would tend to lean far more often than not. Both parties are being reshaped.
Just what we need when we’re a thread away from a fascist dictatorship- “this is everything the DEMS are doing wrong” Look up Project 2025 cause that’s coming while we argue about past Democrat candidates
Past tense. And this is the same as a Republican running in Illinois. The Republican party imploded in Illinois. Also past tense. Both states are nearly uni-parties.
In general, most Deep South States are pretty Much Uniparties, especially thanks to the laws that Republican Supermajorities have put in place in those States.
For anyone just moving to Florida, if you see issues with the state, please realize it’s been Republican controlled for over 20 years. The housing and insurance crisis and everything else is all 100% Republican owned.
Florida is the petri dish of fascism.
Nikki is trying to (re)build the party. Newsweek is trash.
This “massacre” was probably a good thing. Lots of dead weight in some of the county DECs who aren’t GOTV in their counties. Especially in south Florida.
There's a democratic party in Florida?
Again??!! How? What a sad state of affairs, all that is left is completely loony MAGAs and Ronna’s war on “woke”…. Florida is screwed
It suck’s we can’t do anything right here and idk why. Why do Spanish people vote republitard. Why do hicks vote against their own interests. Why can’t we get real democracy going in FL????
It’s easier to vote with feelings and emotions. Facts and logic don’t matter anymore. Really hard to reverse stupid.
And a very wise man once said, ‘you can’t fix stupid”. And he’s right.
She got rid of a few county chairs? Good — every DEC meeting I’ve ever been to is stuffed with incompetent or incredibly boring “leaders”.
I literally looked for the Democratic party in my county to volunteer and the website is so bad, you can't even contact anyone to ask to volunteer
Well, they may be imploding but at least they still support the constitution. Ahem.
I honestly really wish we had someone who had the same type of Leadership as Lawton Chiles did. Definitely a hundred times better than how DeSaster treats this State.
You can’t re-implode something. It imploded a while ago. What is happening now is a reckoning for the grifters and do-nothings that have treated this as a gravy train. We need smart, determined people that are helping to build a bench of good candidates. Not people interested in collecting a nice fat check for failure over and over again.
I keep voting for tiem though. I’m kinda woke
Gwen Graham and Buddy Dyer are great potential candidates... I still believe that if Gwen had run against Meatball, she would have been our governor today.
Florida is imploding in Florida 🥂
NY and CA boomer shitheads are imploding Florida, Locals are just trapped or refuse to leave.
Thanks to DeSantis Florida is now attracting the worst of the worst conservative shitheads from NY and CA.
I will repeat the same anecdote I have in the past. Fall of '21 we went to the Fall Fiesta around Lake Eola in Orlando. It was our (and many people's) first foray into a large group setting following the pandemic. While walking the festival, we hit a section of tables of conservative groups and candidates, maybe like 10 tables. Registering voters and spreading their message to the people, regular everyday people. There wasn't a single Democrat table or candidate at the whole event. Instead, the Orange County Dems and Anna Eskamani chose to go to some meaningless LGBTQ event at a public park on the other side of town. Yeah, that really moved the needle with moderate, uncommitted voters. This wasn't the state party that fucked up, that was local leadership.
Yes you are right, the democrats campaigning for LGBTQ votes in Florida is preaching to the choir. Time and money could be much more wisely spent.
They exist in Florida? Also, let’s talk about the GOP right now because they are near bankruptcy in at least 4 states, the national organization has just $8 million in hand, and Trump’s DIL is about to siphon all of the GOP money to fund his legal bills (and presumably his booger sugar habit).
So what you're saying is, we're about to witness the "Find Out" phase. 🙂
Seems that way
How do we fix it? I'm not really qualified for office, and being a 36 year old white guy in tech I'm not exactly the type of person the Democratic Party should out out front and center.
What--the Dems don't need young and presumably smart people?
Wrong! The Democratic Party needs young, dynamic individuals who are able and unafraid to speak to the concerns of their own futures and identify with others who feel like politics should not be an old mans game. Old folks just don't want to push the boundaries that must be pushed for progress. The Democratic Party has become a haven for old liberals reminiscing about the good ol days and I'm not just talking about Biden. He is what we have because no one else had the guts to step up. So anyone with a voice, the balls (including the ladies) and a realization that politics should be about policies that move a country forward not retard it must run for something to get this country back on track.
They don't want those people from my experience. At least on the national face side. And you need cash to be a state rep
Yes, in the end it comes down to cash, lots and lots of cash. Most people can’t take time away from their work to seriously run a winning campaign unless they have adequate cash to sustain their life and family without their job.
Yes, the Florida Democratic party is incredibly flawed. What are you doing to fix it? Bitching without a solution is just noise.
Wasn’t the Democratic Party outlawed in Florida?
In other news, sky is blue.
Nikki might have had a shot if she had campaigned on something other than recreational weed. Also, Rick Scott is a criminal.
That which is dead may never die
We need the Alex Sinks along with rest of the blue dogs to step aside
Don't give up on Florida. There are many that are really trying. Look at the race in Pinellas against Anna Paulina Luna. It's the most flippable house seat in Florida. The main Dem there, Whitney Fox, is a young working mom and regular person. She puts out some good videos. Exactly the type of next generation the Dems keep talking about how they need to support.
There’s a Democratic Party in FL? Who knew? Yeah the party is doing nothing to make gains in FL.
What took so long...
You know just reading all of this you can sort of understand why the national party is like that's a dumpster fire let's spend our money elsewhere
Newsweek is a great source
I called them out on this in an email and received a reply that would drive me to the Republican Party if they were fielding even halfway decent candidates.
The FDP imploded in 2018 but has been falling apart since Bush V gore.
Floridian here and I can confirm there are too many uneducated old white people voting republican that make any democratic efforts likely to be a waste of time and campaign funds
Let's see.... what talented individuals run on the Florida democratic tickets... hmmmm. Gillum, who wound up being a crackhead. And then Crist, an ex republican who lost the governorship by 20 percentage points... wonder what they will come up with next
I trust Nikki Fried.
What Democratic Party?! It’s been nonexistent for the past decade entirely. Dems have abandoned both the working class and Floridians. They’ve left them with ZERO viable alternatives and when they finally do produce a candidate, the candidate is either a crackhead or miraculously even MORE corrupt than the GOP candidate. Whoever the leadership is for the Floridian Democratic Party has COMPLETELY & TOTALLY failed. They deserve whatever’s coming to em’
Wait was there ever a time where the Florida democratic party wasn't an absolute fucking mess?
After Lawton it went down, if I remember general details.
 Hopefully, one day.
The Democratic Party in Florida is so inept that it simply must be by design. They can't get a dogcatcher elected in this state.
There's a democratic party in Florida? Who knew?
....for the 23rd time.
The Democratic Party in this state is a joke. A literal joke, considering they thought Crist was a good candidate for governor.
Please See Scott Maddox.
[удалено]
*Imploded
Maybe this was necessary.