Former State Sen. Audrey Gibson announced Monday she is running for Florida Democratic Party Chair.
An over 20-year veteran of the Florida legislature and former Duval County Democratic Party Chair, Gibson is so far the only person who has announced they would be challenging incumbent FDP Chair Nikki Fried. She told WFSU she’s running because she believes how the party does business and tries to connect with voters is stuck in time.
“It's not Lawton Chile’s Democratic Party anymore. It's 2025. We have to meet people where they are. The demographics of the party has changed, the makeup of who's part of their party has changed or the people that we're trying to keep and bring back at this point. Their families are different, the culture is different, and we have to move into an area of cultural competency if we want to be able to talk to people and encourage them that we are the party for protection, we are the party that cares,” she said.
Her candidacy comes at a low point for the party. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris finished 13 points behind President-elect Donald Trump during last year’s presidential election, while President Joe Biden only lost the state by three points in 2020. Two Democratic state lawmakers swapped parties last month. Arguments about what ideological and strategic direction the party should take are being argued publicly by some of the state’s few remaining influential Democrats.
She said messaging in the state this past election cycle was too focused on what she called national, cookie cutter messages instead of targeted issues that are impacting Floridians.
“You can talk about democracy and freedoms, and, trust me, I believe in that, but how does that translate to people living from day to day? How do they interpret what that means? And if they have to interpret it and it's not clearly communicated, then they're not going to waste their time trying to figure it out,” she said.
One of the main debates between Democratic party leaders publicly and behind the scenes is whether the party should go to the left or more to the center on messaging. Gibson argues the party is a large tent, but what matters more than partisan split is that the party’s leaders refocus onto economic-based messaging.
“We forget that there is conservative arm of our party, there are people who are right in the middle, and there are people who may be more to the left, but generally people are pretty much in the middle. They just are. And when they say that they're suffering economically, and we don't even address that, that's the problem,” she said.
The election for Florida Democratic Party Chair will be on Jan. 25. It will be decided by state party committee people, as well as other party figures.