Leon County School Board candidate Jeremy Rogers and Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried prepare to cast early ballots for the 2024 Florida Primary election on Aug. 12, 2024. (Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
As supervisors of elections begin mailing out ballots for the 2024 general election this week, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried announced Monday that the party is getting more financial help from national Democratic Party interests.
Whether that can make a difference as the voting is about to begin remains a question, 36 days before Election Day.
The Democratic National Committee is making a $400,000 contribution to the state party to help with organizational infrastructure and “put more boots on the ground to elect Democrats,” Fried said on a Zoom conference call.
“This investment shows the party’s commitment of fighting for Florida,” she said, giving praise to DNC Chair Jamie Harrison for showing confidence in the Democrats’ electoral chances. “Because of his leadership, Democrats all across the country will now have the resources to compete, up and down the ballot.”
Fried noted additional promises of outside help from national Democratic Party-aligned organizations, such as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) decision last week to make a “multimillion dollar investment” in television advertising for the party’s hopeful for U.S. Senate, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
The Phoenix asked the DSCC last week exactly how much money they were investing in Mucarsel-Powell and followed up Monday by asking when the ad(s) would begin running. They did not return either request for comment.
The Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee (DCCC) announced last week that they were adding Pinellas County Democratic congressional candidate Whitney Fox to their “red to blue” program, indicating the national party believes Fox is competitive against Republican incumbent Anna Paulina-Luna in Florida’s 13th Congressional District.
Fox is the only Democrat from Florida the DCCC has chosen for that program, designed to provide fundraising and organizational assistance to Democrats nationwide trying to flip Republican-held seats. It won’t be easy, as Luna won the district by 8 percentage points in 2022.
Republicans upbeat
Meanwhile, Fried’s counterpoint, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power, continues to play down the Democrats’ efforts, pointing to the more than 1 million-voter advantage the Republican Party enjoys over the Democrats in registration in the state.
“I think Nikki Fried’s trying to sell a comms strategy to make herself look more powerful,” Power told conservative talk-show radio host Drew Steele on Monday. “But if you look into the numbers — let’s dig into the numbers. We have a million-fifty thousand more registered Republicans. Now’s the time we’re going to have to turn them out. And we are going to turn them out.”
In a separate press release, Power dismissed the outside-Florida money from Democrats attempting to boost Mucarsel-Powell.
“No amount of New York and California farm money will be able to cover for the fact that Mucarsel-Powell is unknown in many of Florida’s counties because she rarely ventures outside of big cities,” he said. “Senator Scott has visited all 67 counties and knows the local leaders Florida voters trust. Florida voters will turn out to reject the failed policies Democrats have forced our nation to endure over the last four years.”
A survey of 808 registered voters in Florida by Public Policy Polling on behalf of Clean and Prosperous America taken on Sept. 25-26 shows Scott with a three-point lead over Mucarsel-Powell, 47%-44%.
The same survey shows Donald Trump with a four-point lead over Kamala Harris in the Sunshine State, 50%-46%.
The survey had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.