Florida Democrats Need to Get Everyone Into the Tent for 2024
The party has to accommodate the many differences of its own members and woo anti-Trump Republicans and independents.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, second from right, has a lot of work to do in fitting everyone into the tent.
Photographer: Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service /Getty Images
Florida Democrats gathered at Walt Disney World in Orlando over the weekend to try to script a path out of the morass left in 2022 when the party lost all statewide races, watched Republicans gain a supermajority in the legislature and gave Republican Governor Ron DeSantis a victory that propelled him onto the national stage.
They chose the Disney Contemporary Resort for their annual Leadership Blue event in a display of solidarity with the company DeSantis had punished for opposing his so-called Don’t Say Gay bill. But symbolic gestures aside, the convention was also a reminder of the challenges Democrats face trying accommodate the many differences of their own members under the big tent, while also trying to woo former Republicans and independent voters.