Nikki Fried vs. Gwen Graham

[Tekken_Guy]

Who would you rather see run against Ron DeSantis in 2022? Nikki Fried or Gwen Graham?

[brucejoel99]

Gwendolyn all the f**king way!

[Mr. Smith]

Optimistically: Fried
The Usual: Graham

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

The Democrat who actually won in 2018

[Not Me, Us]

Fried won statewide in a bad year for dems in the state. That fact alone makes her a way stronger candidate than Graham, who only represented a small portion of the state for 2 years. I think either stand a decent chance of winning, but Fried is stronger. It's a shame there's no good progressive option though.

[😥]

Former one-term Congresswoman, who won mainly because of her father and then lost to left-wing in gubernatorial primary, even with full support of establishment of Democratic Party in all country and in the state
vs
Incumbent Agriculture Commissioner, who managed to win this office in year, which was generally awful for Democrats in Florida

Easy choice for me. Nikki Fried, not even close

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

If I choose Gwen Graham just because of her surname I'll sound like a hack...

...so I choose Gwen Graham just because of her first name.

[brucejoel99]

Speaking as the Floridian Democrat here, winning the Governor's Mansion & holding onto Ag Commissioner is much more likely if Graham is running for the former & Fried is running for re-election to the latter than if Fried - giving off the impression that all she's focused on is moving up the hierarchy - runs for the former & a virtual unknown runs for the latter. We don't want Fried giving up her seat as Ag Commissioner to run for Governor, because that could risk us losing both offices, which is a huger risk than losing just Governor. Such is to say that Graham would be a safer pick than Fried for 2022, & if she loses, there's always 2026 for Fried when she's term-limited from being Ag Commissioner.

[Donerail]

It's important to note here, and I wouldn't expect out-of-state posters to be up on the details of this system, that a lot of the powers granted to the Governor alone in other states are held by the Florida Cabinet collectively under the Florida Constitution. Clemency petitions, for example, are decided by a vote of the Cabinet rather than by the Governor.

There are three members of the Cabinet, along with the Governor, and ties are broken in favor of whichever side the Governor is voting on. In other words, a Governor of one party needs at least one Cabinet member of the same party in order to accomplish much of anything. I'd vote for Graham in this matchup.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Graham since she'd lose

[President Johnson]

Nikki Fried, but only if the race is actually competitive. It looks like it might be even in a Biden midterm, giving DeSantis' disastrous pandemic handling.

[krb08]

Notice how every Floridian would prefer Graham, while most out-of-staters prefer Fried. We know our state. I like Fried, but Graham is the better choice. She would have won in 2018, too.

[S019]

Both are good choices, and in a vacuum, I'd probably lean Fried, but given she has a tough Agriculture Commissioner seat to hold down, it might be better for her to stay there. Also Graham is a much stronger candidate than Gillum, and she would have won in 2018 and maybe carried Nelson with her, as well.

[Perlen vor den Schweinen]

Former one-term Congresswoman, who won mainly because of her father and then lost to left-wing in gubernatorial primary, even with full support of establishment of Democratic Party in all country and in the state
vs
Incumbent Agriculture Commissioner, who managed to win this office in year, which was generally awful for Democrats in Florida

Easy choice for me. Nikki Fried, not even close

Fried won by accident- the Ag Commissioner race had a huge undervote compared to the Governor and Senate races. Both she and the GOP candidate for Ag Commissioner received around 55,000 fewer votes than their parties' US Senate nominees; it just so happens that that undervote favored Fried.

Almost every statewide election winner in Florida in 2018 won by accident.

[Orwell]

Fried won statewide in a bad year for dems in the state. That fact alone makes her a way stronger candidate than Graham, who only represented a small portion of the state for 2 years. I think either stand a decent chance of winning, but Fried is stronger. It's a shame there's no good progressive option though.

The Progressive option did soooooo well it 2018

[Coldstream]

Graham because I’d rather not sacrifice Fried when there’s a plausible option somewhere else.

[Donerail]

Fried won statewide in a bad year for dems in the state. That fact alone makes her a way stronger candidate than Graham, who only represented a small portion of the state for 2 years. I think either stand a decent chance of winning, but Fried is stronger. It's a shame there's no good progressive option though.

The Progressive option did soooooo well it 2018

Gillum — the black mayor of Tallahassee who was still a relative unknown when he won the Democratic primary — lost by 0.4% while running explicitly as a progressive. Fortunately, we have his perfect contrast on the ballot: an elderly white man, an astronaut from Washington County with a string of five statewide victories, "Florida's independent Senator," "the last of the moderates." Lost by 0.13%.

[Not Me, Us]

Fried won statewide in a bad year for dems in the state. That fact alone makes her a way stronger candidate than Graham, who only represented a small portion of the state for 2 years. I think either stand a decent chance of winning, but Fried is stronger. It's a shame there's no good progressive option though.

The Progressive option did soooooo well it 2018

Nelson lost too, as an incumbent who won in a landslide in 2012. 2018 was a bad year for Florida Democrats regardless of which faction of the party they were in.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

I would rather Graham run because I think Fried has a good chance of winning re-election.
HOWEVER my fear is.....
If Gwen Graham couldn't beat Andrew Gillum, who as we now know has plenty of scandals, I doubt she's a good campaigner.
If she does run, she better not rehire her last opposition research team because knowing what we know now, they are hilariously incompetent!

[Fuzzy Bear]

Nelson, who I voted for, ran an awful campaign.  Rick Scott, whom I have loathed, ran a great campaign and was benefiting from his high-profile performances leading Florida through two (2) major hurricane seasons back to back.  Those opportunities softened Scott's image and gave people more of a sense that he cared about them, personally.  (And just in time; Nelson would have squeaked by again without those opportunities.)

I view Fried as a fluke winner.  She won on the issue of Medical Marijuana, for the most part, and she won by an incredibly small margin.  She doesn't have a real high profile, and I can't really see her having the kind of base needed to defeat DeSantis, but Florida is sort of trending Democratic (though not strongly).

I view Graham as a stronger candidate for the Democrats.  She would have beaten DeSantis IMO.  And Gillum would have been a disaster if elected; he's one of the few votes I actually regret. 

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Graham probably would've won in 2018, but Fried should got the nomination in 2022.

[Use Your Illusion]

At this point it's a coin flip for me. I love me some Gwen but I'm not convinced she'd beat DeSantis despite a COVID resolution. These people in FL are friggin warped. Nikki on the other hand.... Maybe

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Graham, if she had won in 2018, Biden would carry the state, that is a tossup

[Alben Barkley]

Both are good choices, and in a vacuum, I'd probably lean Fried, but given she has a tough Agriculture Commissioner seat to hold down, it might be better for her to stay there. Also Graham is a much stronger candidate than Gillum, and she would have won in 2018 and maybe carried Nelson with her, as well.

[bagelman]

Fried is much better and isn't a dynasty candidate. Sadly Graham will cry "my turn! I should've been nominated in 2018!" and is the favorite to win.