The GOP candidates in two special congressional elections in Florida won on Tuesday, but with much slimmer margins than the incumbent Republicans won by in November. Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the election results.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now
00:07is Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party. Nikki, thank you so much for joining me.
00:12Thanks for having me today.
00:14I appreciate you coming on. You must have had a busy night. You called last night Tuesday night
00:19historic. Republicans won two special congressional elections in the Sunshine State on Tuesday,
00:25but with much slimmer margins than they won by in November.
00:29You're saying that this is voters already rejecting President Trump's agenda.
00:32What is your reaction to the results?
00:35Yes, so they are historic because these are two seats back in November that in
00:39Congressional District 6 that Trump won by roughly over 30, 32 points. And Mike Waltz,
00:45who is the previous congressman in that area, he also won that seat by 33 points.
00:50And Congressional District 6, it was Trump by 36, Matt Gaetz by 36. And so to see that within
00:57three months in areas where Democrats have not had the resources, have not organized on the
01:02ground, don't have real infrastructure to support our candidates, we were able to, in three months,
01:08put the work on the ground, get national attention onto these races and talk about the issues that
01:14were important to the people of the state. And that is Social Security, our Medicare, Medicaid,
01:19our VA benefits, our veterans who are being fired from the administration. All of these issues were
01:26on the ground and our candidates were talking about those things in particular. And so what we
01:31were able to do is move the needle by 16 points in Congressional District 6 and 22 points in
01:38Congressional District 1, flipping Escambia County, which hasn't gone blue since 1960.
01:44This showed what it was like to actually do the work.
01:47Talk to us exactly about that effort, because in just three months, as you said,
01:51you moved those margins by double digits there. I had a GOP strategist on earlier and he said,
01:57you know, we were sweating up until Tuesday night. We got the results and it was a solid
02:01win, but we were still sweating. I mean, what did that work look like?
02:06Yeah, and that we actually absolutely made them sweat. You saw polling coming out of both
02:10districts, seeing that Republicans were going to be flipping for Democrats, independents were
02:16flipping for Democrats, and we had a lot of energy from the Democratic base. But the work
02:21meant being on the doors, talking to voters, going in and having those conversations about what is
02:26important to you, what is on your mind, what is keeping you up at night. And we built a pretty
02:31broad coalition. And so, yeah, Republicans started seeing all of the money that was coming and
02:35pouring in from across the country into these districts. They saw that we were talking about
02:40issues that were really resonating with the voters. And at the last minute, they had to
02:44have Donald Trump calling into the districts, having all of their statewide elected Republicans,
02:49as well as their members of their congressional delegation have to do direct cameras and phoning
02:55into these districts. And they had to pour in a lot of money at the very end to make sure that
03:00they secured these wins. That would have never been dreamed of four months ago. And I think it
03:05really is a testament to the moment that we are living through as Americans. Aside from the
03:10groundwork that was put in, what else do you think was the biggest factor contributing to this gap
03:16being tightened here? Was it the Republican candidates? Was it the Democratic candidates?
03:21Or was it President Trump's agenda writ large? It was a combination of all of it. You had
03:27Jimmy Patronus and Randy Fine, who are the Republican candidates, now congressman-elect,
03:32didn't campaign. They didn't fundraise. They didn't go into the district. They weren't working.
03:36There was no campaign on the ground. And these districts in particular, they want people to show
03:42up for them. They want people who are going to be real, that represents them, that is going to
03:46come home and answer questions and fight for them. And so those Republican candidates in particular
03:52were not great for these districts. They didn't work them. And on the other hand,
03:56it was Trump's agenda. You're seeing in congressional district one, there's four
04:01military bases, a tremendous amount of veterans in those areas. In congressional district six,
04:06over 60% of that district has some type of federal assistance, whether it is VA benefits,
04:13whether it's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. And the threats to those programs and to our
04:20seniors who have spent their entire life working and putting money into Social Security, those
04:25issues are really resonating with the voters that say maybe this Trump agenda isn't the right one
04:30for the American people. And so it was a combination really of all of it.
04:34And these races made Republicans seemingly so nervous that President Trump pulled Congresswoman
04:39Elise Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador last week. I do want to read in a part of an
04:45op-ed in Bloomberg this morning. It's entitled Democrats Wasted Donors' Money in Florida.
04:50It also says this. Instead of lavishing huge sums on special elections, they have no chance
04:55of winning. Democrats need to invest for the long term in the sunshine state. And a Democratic
05:00strategist was quoted in the column as calling the millions Democrats spent on the races, quote,
05:05donor abuse and quote, an unethical use of resources. What are your thoughts on that
05:09characterization of what went on in Florida? Absolutely not. I think I don't know who wrote
05:14all those articles, but they started as an absolute mischaracterization of what happened.
05:18First of all, you know, these candidates worked really hard. They worked really hard to raise
05:22those dollars and put the resources on the ground. This money wasn't spent and wasted on TV.
05:28It was spent in communities that haven't had any investment. And so now not only those candidates
05:33are leaving money behind for the local party, but there also have trained volunteers. They've
05:38trained these local leaders to make sure that we're building the foundation for forward. And of
05:43course, as chair of the Florida Democratic Party, I'm always going to want that investment into the
05:46party because that gives us an opportunity throughout the year to be organizing across
05:51the entire state to make sure that we're working on voter registration. And so these are the
05:56resources that came into the state. They were utilized because we worked with the candidates
06:00in both of these races. We leaned in with all of our volunteer apparatuses. We trained people. And
06:05that is why you're going to see that these investments will not only be able to help,
06:09but also look at what happened from these results. The fact that Stefanik was pulled,
06:13the fact that Republicans across the entire country that are seeing that they're in R plus
06:1816 or less seats, they're waking up today and saying, oh, maybe not so fast as Trump agenda
06:23may not work for my constituents. And I would be looking at the numbers for them because the
06:27numbers are stunning. Walton Gates won by over 30. Brandy Fine and Jimmy Patronis won by less than
06:33half of that. So what do you think Democrats can take from this, learn from this race and apply to
06:39the midterms? I think a couple of things. One is you've got to compete everywhere. You've got to
06:44put the work on the ground, be talking to your voters consistently year round and talking about
06:50the issues that are important to them. And I think that both of these races and you look at
06:53the candidates and their campaigns, they were very focused on what is the needs of their constituents.
06:59They weren't, you know, throwing, you know, shade other places. They were really talking about what
07:05was important and the issues that really transcended partisan politics. You know,
07:09whether you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, not registered, the cuts to
07:13Social Security are going to impact you. If you are a family who has had children and some special
07:18needs, that the destruction of the Department of Education is going to impact you. If you are a
07:23veteran and you can't get through to the VA for your health care needs, that's going to impact
07:29you. And so what we can learn from these races across the rest of the country is when you focus
07:33on the impacts of the Trump agenda on everyday people, including our farmers, the tariffs today
07:39are going to absolutely destroy Florida agriculture. And I think when we start to kind of
07:43pull back the layers, be very laser focused on the message and the issues, this is a winning
07:48formula for the rest of the nation. And I think yesterday was probably arguably the best day
07:54Democrats have seen really since November 5th, because you saw this dent in the gap in Florida,
08:00in historically red districts yesterday. You're seeing that close a bit. You're seeing in
08:04Wisconsin, a Democrat backed candidate for the Supreme Court win. You're also seeing Senator
08:09Cory Bush or Cory Booker. Rather, he made the longest speech on the Senate floor. Do you think
08:15that this is a flash in the pan for Democrats or do you think the tide is starting to shift here?
08:19Because as you know, they faced an identity crisis. They have faced a popularity crisis.
08:25What do you think this looks like? I think yesterday was a phenomenal day for America
08:30and for democracy. What what Senator Booker accomplished for 25 hours was not just rambling.
08:38He was able to be so laser focused in all those 24 hours, laying out the closing argument of why
08:45the Trump administration's policies are in the wrong direction, destroying of our democracy,
08:50destroying so many of the safety nets for our communities. And so you saw a fight again. You
08:56saw that fight. And I think that I saw something that Cory posted later on or it was an interview
09:01later on. It's like, look, the American people weren't waiting for us to be leaders. They were
09:05already going into their communities. They're going to these town halls. They were doing the
09:09work on the ground. And it was time for him to catch up. And I think that it sent a signal to
09:14the rest of the elected Democrats across the country that this is what we need in this moment.
09:18We need this fight. And then seeing the electoral wins and, you know, in Wisconsin, they took on
09:23Elon Musk and they called out the corruption and trying to buy elections and trying to buy the
09:28judicial branch. And the people in Wisconsin said not so fast. Our courts are not for sale.
09:33And then the messaging in Florida at the local level with huge movement shifts in our seats.
09:39This was a trifecta yesterday of where we are and how we kind of move together. Is there still
09:44messaging that we all need to work on? Without a doubt. Is there still an identity crisis that
09:49the Democratic Party is undergoing? Yes. But this is a step in the right direction.
09:54I hear just how optimistic you are. And I know we have a long time to go here. But what are
10:00you looking out for between now and the midterms? And what does this indicate about the upcoming
10:04midterms? I think that the biggest sign and I just got off of a pretty large fundraising call
10:11with DNC donors from across the country. I think what this is showing because people have written
10:16off Florida. They've written us off as this ruby red state is that is a home of MAGA extremism.
10:22And they wrote us off. But what is showing is that we are going to crawl back. We are going
10:26to fight for every single vote. And so today was a wake up call to the nation as you can't count
10:33Florida out. You've got to invest here. Invest. You're not in campaigns all the time, but invest
10:38in our infrastructure. Invest in the organizations like the Florida Democratic Party, who is doing
10:43the work on the ground, who is making sure that we are hitting all 67 counties that we're recruiting
10:50candidates from school board all the way up to the U.S. is count Florida out and they showing
10:58of that for we are ready to play and then putting resources people. Nikki Freed, thank you so,
11:06so much for joining me. I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate the time today.
11:10You are welcome back anytime. Thanks for the conversation. Well, thanks for having me.