'He is afraid of Donald Trump': How Florida Democrats are capitalizing on Ron DeSantis’ corrosive campaign

09 July 2023

The Florida Democratic Party's annual Leadership Blue fundraising dinner concluded its 2023 edition with a drag show, the Sun Sentinelreported late Saturday night.

State party chair Nikki Fried "arranged for an appearance by drag queen Velvet Lenore, who performed several numbers along with her backup dancers," the paper chronicled.

Following her performance, LeNore jabbed at Florida's right-wing governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, whom she recalled to the Sentinel has been "trying to say drag is a crime, and it's not."

But LeNore's act was merely one facet of how Florida Democrats are capitalizing on DeSantis' White House bid, which trails former President Donald Trump by double digits amid DeSantis' difficulties connecting with GOP primary voters.

DeSantis' struggle, NBC News explained on Saturday, "has given a burst of energy to Democrats who desperately needed one."

Like LeNore, actor and activist Bradley Whitford railed against DeSantis at the Democratic dinner.

"Ron DeSantis is a f*cking coward," Whitford said, according to NBC. "He is a f*cking coward. He is afraid of history. He is afraid of people different than him. He is afraid of Donald Trump."

Whitford also knocked DeSantis over the bizarre ad that he released on June 30th attacking Trump for supposedly being too soft toward LGBTQ Pride.

"Little Ronnie D can play dress up and do all the homoerotic Top Gun ads he wants, but no Florida is not free," Whitford quipped.

Despite the jokes, however, NBC observed that Florida Democrats "did belie the institutional challenges Democrats in the state still have as the 2024 election cycle starts to take shape. For the first time in Florida political history, Republicans have overtaken Democrats' voter registration advantage — which in the mid-2000s stood at roughly 700,000. And the state party is no longer seen as a top-tier priority by a national Democratic Party increasingly focused on states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona, all of which are cheaper and trending blue."

And although Democrats are still without a challenger to Florida's incumbent GOP United States Senator Rick Scott, NBC added, Fried "has taken pains to try to inject energy into a party that has been perceived as stagnant in recent years."

Fried, NBC noted, further pledged to expand Democrats' reach into Republican territory.

Fried reminded her colleagues that "winning local races is key to building the statewide infrastructure. We need to win again." She stressed that "what people see us doing matters. That is why you will see me crisscross our state from Pensacola to Key West showing up to places that have been forgotten by this party."

NBC's full article continues at this link. The Sun Sentinel's piece is here (subscription required).

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