'You Don't Fly Him In Twice to Defend a State You Think Is Safe': Nikki Fried Reads Trump's Daytona Stop as Republican Trouble
Florida's Democratic chair called tonight's rally a 'last-ditch effort' for 'failing' campaigns, arguing Florida Republicans have spent six weeks stepping away from a president whose approval sits in the low 30s.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried used President Donald Trump's arrival in Daytona Beach on Friday to make the opposite case from the one the rally is built on: that a second Trump visit to Florida in a single week is evidence Republicans fear losing ground in a state they dominate. Fried, the only Democrat to win statewide office in Florida since 2012, called a news conference and described the stop as a 'last-ditch effort' to support 'failing' campaigns. 'We are just four days from Election Day, and Republicans know they are in trouble,' she said. 'You don't fly a historically unpopular president twice in one week to defend a state you think is safe.' No Republican response appears in the News-Journal's report of the news conference.
Fried argued that Florida Republicans have spent the better part of six weeks stepping away from the president, whose national approval rating she placed in the low 30s. She pointed to congressional candidate Ryan Elijah, endorsed by Trump but not listing the president among his backers on his website, and said gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds 'spent a weekend scrubbing his website' - and that when word reached the president, 'he threw a temper tantrum, and now does he not only get one visit, we have a second visit.' When Trump speaks tonight, she said, every Republican on stage with him will be associated by voters with his tariff agenda and the war in Iran - a war the News-Journal notes began on February 28, more than eight months ago.
Fried was joined by state Rep. RaShon Young of Orlando, who asked what Floridians have to show for nearly three decades of Republican leadership, and Volusia County Democratic chair Nick Sakhnovsky, who cited high gas and diesel prices and young people unable to afford a home after 30 years of Republican leadership in the state. Fried spotlighted David Jolly, Donalds' rival for governor, and his plan to lower homeowners' insurance costs through a state-backed hurricane fund, and Angie Nixon, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Trump's own argument - that his candidates cut taxes and delivered results - was made at last week's Fort Myers rally and will be made again tonight at the Ocean Center, where he is expected on stage at 7 p.m. Eastern.
