Despite historic losses on election night, Florida Democratic Chairwoman Nikki Fried said Thursday she wasn’t going anywhere and vowed to run for another four-year term despite some calls for her resignation.

November 5 brought many things for Republicans victories. Trump extended his 3.4-point margin of victory in Florida in 2020 to more than 13 points. The GOP retained its U.S. Senate and House seats. They maintained their supermajority in the parliament. They upset Miami-Dade County for the first time since the late ’80s.

But Fried said the situation could be worse.

“You know, I think a lot of this is the national narrative, the national conversation,” Fried said during our conversation, which lasted more than 30 minutes. report.

Chairman Fried, who was elected in 2023 to complete the term of his predecessor Manny Diaz, said the party faces a number of problems. It’s a message that encompasses everything from weak voter registration, no real financial investment from the national party, and everything from abortion access to affordability.

It did not particularly resonate with independents.

“We believed independents would deal a heavy blow to Democrats this cycle, but they didn’t,” Fried said. “I mean, they were very hard on Donald Trump on two issues. That was ‘economic stupidity,’ which was always the number one issue. And for whatever reason, we’re going to spend on that.” I spent a lot of time examining why — people didn’t believe Democrats would solve these problems for them… Then the border, even though we all know there was a bipartisan border bill that Donald Trump filibustered because he wanted to. And you’ll be able to use it this election cycle. I know, for better or worse, the vice president was impeached for not addressing the situation at the border. Nothing he said would make people feel or believe that he had a plan for the future.

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Fried recently wrote: column I covered all this for the Miami Herald. In the message, he acknowledges the missed messages but says things could have been worse and that Florida Democrats are “holding the line.” This is his general manager sent this: “Not sugarcoating it – we got our asses kicked.”

“So it’s both,” Fried said. “We lost. It’s like the end of the day. For example, we lost the election. We cannot say – and I think Phillip’s comments either – that they are about the country. We spent over a billion dollars on this campaign. We lost Congress, we lost the Senate, we lost the White House. That was Obama’s number one criticism of himself after he left the White House… that he didn’t do enough to build the infrastructure in place.”

Since their election night failure, a blame game has broken out in the party and in The Sunshine State. Former chairman of the Florida Harris Campaign in the name I demand that state Democrats “fix their shit.” Others they said they were To leave party as long as Fried remains at the helm.

“I’m staying here,” Fried said. “I’m in this for the long haul to fix this party and continue to build on it… But we don’t have time for finger-pointing. You know, finger-pointing has put us in a situation where we’re changing seats every two years, and what has that done for us? Both “We’re rebuilding every year and we’ll never have a foundation to build on… There’s work to be done, but if we wipe everything out and start over, ’26 will be a bloodbath for this party and then the cycle will continue, and we must stop the cycle.”

Fried confirmed he would seek a new four-year term as president. He promised to do better on voter registration, find ways to encourage donors to invest in Florida and win back independent voters with improved messaging.

“We have to keep fighting,” Fried said. “When you have to get back up, you get knocked down. We’ve got a lot of work to do… This can’t be ‘The Florida Democratic Party is going it alone.’ We need everyone to feel committed to rebuilding, and if we start pointing and not looking at each other, it’s not going to do any good.” “Anyone can go on Twitter, anybody can go on social media and get their two cents in. The real work is done right here in the field every day.”

Speaking of the future, Fried also said that running for higher office is a potential for him. He ran for governor in 2022 but failed to secure the party nomination, losing to U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (who served as Republican governor before independence, then Democrat). Fried said he would wait for the right moment.

“If an opportunity arises where I believe we’re returning to a place where the state is ready for balance and ready to change course, and I feel like I’m best suited for that position, I’m not closing the door on the next election,” he said. “But I’m also not naive. I’m not going near the saw.”