Should Nikki Fried challenge DeSantis or run for re-election?

[Tekken_Guy]

Should Nikki Fried challenge Ron DeSantis for the governorship in 2022 or run for re-election in the Agricultural Commissioner seat?

[KaiserDave]

Run for reelection and then challenge Voldemort in 2024 and save America from him

[VAR]

What’s so special about Nikki Fried?

[KaiserDave]

What’s so special about Nikki Fried?

Not too much, but she was the only Dem to win statewide in Florida in 2018

[KYRockefeller]

She could mount a challenge, but if she advocates for a state income tax like Gillum she'll lose.  That issue more than any other probably pushed DeSantis across the finish line.

[Lognog]

if not Fried who would challenge him?

[President Johnson]

Lean yes, since he tanked with the pandemic. I'd decide by mid/late 2021 in her position depending on DeSantis' approvals.

Let Val Demings take on Voldemort in 2024.

[brucejoel99]

No, since she's the one who has the best chance of holding onto the Ag Commissioner office for the Democrats. She should run for re-election & then if DeSantis is re-elected, run in 2026 once she's term-limited.

if not Fried who would challenge him?

Gwendolyn.

[Donerail]

She could mount a challenge, but if she advocates for a state income tax like Gillum she'll lose.  That issue more than any other probably pushed DeSantis across the finish line.

Good thing Gillum never proposed a state income tax!

if not Fried who would challenge him?

Graham, Demings, Eskamani, any of the mayors (Castor & Kriseman are the obvious ones, maybe Buddy Dyer).

Anyway, as I noted in the last one of these, a lot of the powers granted to the Governor in other states are held by the Florida Cabinet collectively under the Florida Constitution and Democrats would need at least one additional cabinet officeholder along with the governorship to exercise those powers. Of course, Fried could still conclude that the 2022 Ag Commissioner race is a losing battle and that running for Governor would be substantially easier.

[Red Wall]

In a Biden midterm she should cause she's going to lose either way so it better be a high profile loss.

In a Trump midterm just run for reelection.

[MARGINS6729]

She could mount a challenge, but if she advocates for a state income tax like Gillum she'll lose.  That issue more than any other probably pushed DeSantis across the finish line.

Gillum DID NOT advocate for a state income tax.

[Pulaski]

I hope Anna Eskamani or Stephanie Murphy jump in; Eskamani because she's an outstanding progressive state representative by all accounts, and Stephanie Murphy would have a great shot at winning (plus Eskamani could replace her in the 7th).

[Common Sense Atlantan]

Lean yes, since he tanked with the pandemic. I'd decide by mid/late 2021 in her position depending on DeSantis' approvals.

Let Val Demings take on Voldemort in 2024.

I have a feeling that Demings is running against Rubio in 2022.

[JMT]

I think she should run for reelection, and then either run for Senate in 2024 against Rick Scott, or for Governor in 2026 (assuming a Democrat doesn't win in 2022).

I think Gwen Graham has a good chance at being the Democratic nominee for Governor in 2022, it seems like she's gearing up to run again. I'm not sure if she'd win the general election, TBD (before the pandemic, I thought DeSantis would be reelected easily, but now I'm not so sure).

[Heebie Jeebie]

I'd say her odds of winning the governorship are about equal to her odds of keeping her current seat. She should go for it--there's no guarantee she'll have a better shot further down the road.

[Progressive Pessimist]

As much as DeSantis has s*** the bed with his COVID response, for whatever baffling reason he is still typically slightly above water when it comes to his approval ratings. Additionally, with how much Americans, especially in places with higher concentrations of right wingers than the average state, seem to be over the virus, I doubt it even has any staying power as an issue in 2022. DeSantis will be re-elected, especially if it's a Biden midterm.

So with all that in mind, if Fried wants to pursue higher office (as she might as well in being the Florida Democratic Party's only real prospective candidate of any value) she should challenge Voldemort in 2024. He is the most vulnerable statewide politician in comparison to DeSantis and Rubio. Granted, his horcruxes still need to be destroyed if she doesn't want to also lose by a humiliating 1% or less margin that Scott always succeeds by.

[Mr. Smith]

What’s so special about Nikki Fried?

Not too much, but she was the only Dem to win statewide in Florida in 2018

In retrospect, that has more to do with Caldwell being really pathetic than anything else.