For Nikki Fried, Thursday's televised debate could be defining moment of governor campaign

For what's likely to be the final time before the Aug. 23 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried will face one another in a televised debate Thursday night.

It's an especially big moment for Fried, the state's commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, as mail-in ballots have already landed into the hands of some voters, and she has a name-recognition disadvantage against Crist, a former governor who now serves in Congress.

"I've only been in office for 3½ years as opposed to my primary opponent, who's a career politician, and it is an opportunity to showcase who I am as a leader, who I am as an advocate, the things that I've been able to accomplish as a commissioner, the things I want to accomplish as governor," Fried said in an interview with The News-Journal on Wednesday.

Governor's race: Democrats Charlie Crist, Annette Taddeo mingle with Black voters on B-CU campus

Key backing: Charlie Crist, Democratic candidate for governor, announces abortion rights firewall order

Weighing in: Gov. Ron DeSantis starts school board endorsements, including Fred Lowry in Volusia

The debate will air at 7 p.m. Thursday on WESH-TV (Channel 2) in Orlando and other NBC affiliates around Florida, just ahead of the final scheduled Jan. 6 committee hearing.

If Fried is an underdog in the Democratic primary, either she or Crist will be a much bigger underdog against Gov. Ron DeSantis in the fall. The website fivethirtyeight.com projects DeSantis would beat Crist 95 out of 100 times.

Florida is one of 19 states that have never had a woman governor. And just nine of the 50 states currently employ a woman in that role. Fried argues it's time for that to change.

"We are definitely asking the voters to try something new at a time when our reproductive rights are on the chopping block, not just here in Florida but across the entire country," Fried said.

The Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Dobbs vs. Jackson County Women's Health Organization case, which overturned a nearly 50-year-old precedent that women have constitutionally guaranteed access to abortion, only adds to the urgency for Florida to elect a woman governor, Fried said.

"Women lead differently. We know what is on the line," she said. "I’ve heard the stories from my mother and … my grandmothers about a pre-Roe society and we are the ones who are ready for this challenge. We know it, we feel it and it affects us differently than our male counterparts.

"And so seeing that we have had 46 white men as governors of our state, this is a time when we need to find somebody who is different. Who talks differently, acts differently, fights differently and I do believe the people in our state are ready for the first female," she said.

Fried, a lawyer from Miami who became a government consultant for the medical marijuana industry, was elected Florida's first female agriculture commissioner in 2018. As the lone Democrat in the four-member Cabinet that comprises the executive branch of state government, she's been a thorn in DeSantis' side when he's had little other pushback from lawmakers and the state courts, particularly on the big questions of the pandemic — how much to close down, whether to implement mask mandates and what messaging the public should get to keep people safe.

On DeSantis' COVID response

Fried responded to a question about whether DeSantis' policies defying the federal government's suggestions on reopening businesses and requiring masks cost lives.

"Of course lives were lost. We’ve had over 80,000 Floridians who’ve lost their lives and so not only did they lose their lives but (consider) the ones they’ve left behind," Fried said. "You know, DeSantis did shut down our state. People keep forgetting that. DeSantis did shut the state and when he reopened, he made mistake after mistake after mistake. Refused to listen to science, refused to listen to data. Yelled at the press, yelled at teachers, yelled at children. Yelled at anybody who didn’t agree with him."

Fried said the pandemic exposed the governor as a failed leader.

"It was either his way or the highway. When he was not talking to our mayors and our county commissioners, it was me who did that. When he refused to have press conferences and talk about the pandemic, I did," she said. "I stepped up, gave transparency, gave information, gave data. I was talking to doctors, talking to experts and unfortunately, he was refusing to do that. And it was us who had to make sure vaccines were getting into all parts of our state, not just the white, wealthy communities."

Fried pointed to nearly 1 million COVID-19 test kits that the DeSantis administration had sitting in a warehouse and expired before they could be used. And she criticized the governor's decision making Florida the only state that failed to pre-order COVID-19 vaccines for children. DeSantis said he didn't preclude private providers from ordering those vaccines, while also questioning the quality of evidence the vaccines will be effective.

"We’re hearing report after report, even today, that so many families don’t have access to a vaccine for their children," Fried said. "So we are going to continue telling that story. This is a test of leadership. And the heartbreaking aspect of this story is that he did this to divide our state. He made this so partisan. He made this so political."

Former University of Florida student president

Fried said her background as a young person who volunteered at soup kitchens and with Habitat for Humanity laid the groundwork for her entry into politics. She was student body president at the University of Florida before becoming a lawyer and working as a public defender and on behalf of foster-care children and homeowners during the foreclosure crisis.

"When I got to Tallahassee, when I was doing government consulting, I saw the corruption. I saw the nepotism. I saw how good pieces of legislation didn’t make it to the finish line because of money that was getting infused into campaigns and I got frustrated," she said.

That led to her decision to run for agriculture commissioner. "It was one of those where I just had to trust my gut and step up and stop complaining about things and put my fierce advocacy into elected office," she said.

Debating the debates

Fried said she has been disappointed that Thursday will be the only televised debate with Crist.

"We asked for five debates because it's part of the democratic process and right now there's so much on the line in this election. Democracy is slipping through our fingers and we're watching it every single day,' she said.

Part of her message to voters has been criticism of Crist, who went from being a Republican governor to an independent in 2010, toward the end of his term. He converted to the Democratic Party in 2012.

"We need to trust our candidates. And the fact that Charlie has flipped and flopped on literally every single little issue, and more importantly, when he was a Republican, the things that we as Democrats are fighting against today are things that he had an opportunity to change when he was governor. But instead, he made the situation so much more worse," Fried said. "Whether it is housing, whether it is gay rights. My god, even today he still calls himself pro-life. This is not a time when we can take chances on our candidates that whether or not we can stand up against the fascism that we’re seeing from the radical right."

Joshua Karp, an adviser to the Crist campaign, said Fried's attacks are irresponsible from a Democratic Party unity standpoint.

"Politicians who want to undermine fellow Democrats do the entire party a disservice," Karp said. "In order to win against an opponent like Ron DeSantis, who will be tough, we have to be united, fiercely united."

Karp said Crist intends to use the debate as an opportunity to "showcase our positive agenda for Floridians," including ways to beat back inflation and push back on utility company rate hikes.

"We’re also committed in the debate to make the case that Charlie is the best Democrat to take on Ron DeSantis because he’s tested," Karp said. "He’s run for office 11 times and won most of them. He’s got the experience."

Karp brushed aside Fried's criticism about the number of debates, saying Thursday will be the ninth time the two have shared a stage at a forum or debate, with many of them available to voters to watch online.

Fried said her critiques of Crist are "not new" and easily discovered by voters using Google.

"First of all, if Charlie can’t deal with my attacks, he certainly won’t be able to deal with $150 million (of DeSantis campaign cash) lodged against him," she said. "It’s important for Democrats to put somebody forth who is a true fighter. Somebody who has been standing up for our issues time and time again."

Never miss a story: Subscribe to The Daytona Beach News-Journal using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Nikki Fried defends criticism of her Democratic governor rival Crist