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A longtime Democratic foe of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced she is running for governor on Tuesday – and DeSantis didn't wait long to criticize her qualifications.
"I'm here to break the rigged system in Florida," Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said in her launch video. "It's corrupt, it's anti-democratic and it's time for something new. Like many of you, I've been underestimated my whole life. I was underestimated when I fought corruption as a public defender. I was underestimated when I took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis … and I was underestimated in 2018 when I said a Democrat from Miami could be elected commissioner of agriculture."
DeSantis, who is up for reelection in 2022, reacted to her campaign on Wednesday.
"Nikki Fried has done nothing in office. She does nothing," DeSantis said according to Florida Politics. "All she does is emote on social media, virtue signal to small dollar donors in California and New York. She put her face, spent millions of dollars to put her face on every gas pump across this state, purely to boost her own image at your expense as a taxpayer."
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"She’s a lockdown lobbyist. She would have had our kids locked out of school for the entire year. She would have had this business shuttered for the whole year. They would be out of business if Fried were governor," he continued according to Florida Politics.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried speaks at the "Ridin' with Biden" event at the campaign's new "victory center" located at 428 West Tennessee Street Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. (Reuters)
Fried went after DeSantis on Tuesday for signing a law prohibiting transgender girls from competing in girls' sports in public schools.
"By signing a heartless ban on transgender kids in sports, @GovRonDeSantis is marginalizing an entire community. Signing it on the first day of #Pride2021 is especially cruel. Florida should stand for inclusivity, equality, and liberty — not peddling hate for political points," she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Fried is an attorney and former marijuana lobbyist who graduated from the University of Florida, where she was the first woman student body president in nearly 20 years, according to her state bio.
As of last year, Fried was engaged to medical marijuana entrepreneur Jake Bergmann. Fried highlighted legalizing marijuana as one of her goals in her campaign launch video.
Fried has also expressed support for former Florida state health official Rebekah Jones, who is accused of fabricating her claim that she was pressured by the DeSantis administration to alter the state's coronavirus data.
"Thank you Rebekah Jones, for not being afraid to speak out. @GovRonDeSantis and @HealthyFla will have to answer for this," Fried wrote on Twitter in May 2020.
Fried also shared a supportive message from Jones for her gubernatorial run on her Twitter account.
Fried and Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist are the most high-profile Democrats in the field. As a Republican, Crist served as Florida's governor from 2007 to 2011. He is now a Democratic member of the House of Representatives.
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As of May, Fried had more than $1.4 million in her war chest, while Crist had less than $750,000, according to Florida Politics.
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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