Fried and her staff are collecting information to present to party members about the proposal. There is no set date when she will present that information, but she expects to act in the near future.
“That is determinative on how long this process takes and what the feedback is,” Fried said. “I certainly believe that this is the right direction, but I don’t live on an island.”
Fried is aware that “not everyone in the party is going to feel that this is the right approach.” However, she does believe that the “vast majority” of Democrats, independents, and the electorate overall “believes that this is the right direction for party politics.”
“The politics of today are very different and the political landscaping is changing,” she said.
The proposal is controversial, based on some of the responses the Phoenix has heard from Florida Democrats over the past week. While some longtime members have been espousing such a move for years, others believe it’s the last thing the party should do as it struggles to regain prominence following a surge in Republican voter registration and electoral wins over the past five years.
Fried initially spoke about the proposal in an interview with Scripps Florida State Capitol reporter Forrest Saunders in May, but several state Democrats told the Phoenix they had no idea how serious the party chair was about the idea until she brought it during the party’s Leadership Blue conference last month in Hollywood.
Concern from critics
“I am very concerned about moving to do that, opening our primaries right now, primarily because it will bring about very divisive conversations within the Democratic Party here in Florida,” said Samuel Vilchez Santiago, the Orange County Democratic Party Chair.“Right now we need to be focused on responding and leading our community to Donald Trump’s budget, talking about the cuts he’s doing to Medicaid, impacting close to a million Floridians. The cuts to FEMA and to SNAP benefits; his mass deportation [plan]. How the Republicans have created an affordability crisis in this state after having been empowered with one-party rule for 30 years, and this is not the time to divide the party.”
Walton County Democratic Executive Committee Chair and Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Samantha Hope-Herring is adamantly opposed, calling the idea “insanity.”
“At the end of the day, people just don’t see a reason to be a Democrat, and certainly won’t if we say, ‘You know what? We’re going to let everybody vote over here so, whatever you want to do, it doesn’t matter, we’re just going to roll with it, see how it goes.’ I mean, what kind of field day is that for Republicans?” she said.
“I’m against this,” added former Hillsborough County state Rep. Sean Shaw, the party’s nominee for attorney general in 2018 and also a member of the DNC. “I know what the aim is, and I know why people think it’s a good idea, but we ought to just concentrate on winning elections as the rules are right now, rather than trying to do all of these other things that are going to have really bad unintended consequences.”
Shaw knows the issue well. As head of the nonprofit People Over Profits in 2020, his group argued against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed open primaries, claiming it would disproportionately hurt Black and brown candidates. That measure differed somewhat from what Fried is proposing because it proposed a “Top-Two” or “jungle primary,” allowing the top two finishers running for certain state and legislative seats to advance against each other in the general election, even if they were from the same political party.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties of Florida strongly opposed that at the time, but the idea resonated with voters, gaining 57% approval. While a clear majority, it failed to reach the 60% required for passage.
Terrie Rizzo was chair of the FDP leading up to that 2020 vote. She recounted this week that her opposition was truly the only thing she and then-Republican Party of Florida Chair Joe Gruters could agree about. Without elaborating, she said her stance hasn’t changed.
Although the numbers can vary depending on how you define your terms, Florida is one of only 10 states that does not open its primary elections to anyone outside their respective party members, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures (NCLS).
That’s significant because the 25% of the state’s electorate who choose to be politically independent (or nonparty-affiliated, in Florida election parlance) are banned from participating in those elections. Another 3% of state voters are registered with third-parties and are excluded from participating in Democratic and Republican primary elections. Seven states open their primary elections to unaffiliated voters, also according to the NCSL.
System ‘isn’t working’
While the critics aren’t being shy in their opposition, other Democrats support the idea.Democratic political strategist Steve Schale is “all for” the proposal. “It’s never a bad thing when you are trying to build a broader coalition in a state that you’ve been struggling in,” he said.
“What we’re doing now clearly isn’t working,” Schale said. “In my mind, what is the harm of trying a system where we allow independents to choose to vote in our primary? They don’t have to, but we give them that option, and it forces our candidates to talk to more voters. I’m 100% for that.”
Former Miami Beach Mayor and former Democratic House Leader Dan Gelber has been an advocate for open primaries for years. He wrote a letter to then-FDP Chair Manny Diaz more than three-and-half years ago, and followed up with a similar missive to Fried in March, noting how voters unaffiliated with the two major political parties are shut out of the process.
“Reaching out to these voters makes all the sense in the world,” he wrote. “Nearly thirty percent of all voters are unaffiliated independents, who don’t receive a single piece of mail, or phone call, or door knock until the primaries are decided. Adopting these measures will broaden our reach and incentivize our candidates to listen and interact with a more diverse group of the electorate.”
Both Gelber and Schale say they take seriously concerns the shift could hurt minority candidates. But Schale isn’t aware of “these huge parade of places where the community hasn’t gotten a voice that they want based on the way the district’s drawn, if that makes sense.”
A study published last fall by the Bipartisan Policy Center reported that turnout gaps among racial and ethic groups, “especially Latinos and Asians, are lower on average in open and nonpartisan primaries than closed primaries.” It did not track how minority candidates fared in open primary races, however.
Democratic 2026 gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, who was a nonparty-affiliated voter in Florida for the past seven years until he became a registered Democrat earlier this year, also supports Fried’s exploration, saying “it reflects bold leadership.”
“There’s no greater way to introduce independents and minor party members to Democratic values than to invite them in the tent,” he said in a text message. “In my experience, independents are smart voters who believe deeply in changing our politics — that is also the central tenet of today’s Democratic Party. I think there’s a natural affinity.”
The ultimate decision rests with the broader party committee, Jolly said, “and I trust their judgement and will support their decision.”
Other groups show support
Rank My Vote Florida, a statewide organization best known for advocating for ranked-choice voting (which was banned in Florida in 2022), is actively behind the proposal.“We’ve been advocating for the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) to unilaterally open its primaries to independent voters (NPAs),” Rank My Vote Florida executive director Ramon Perez wrote in an email to his members last week.
“We’re working on this with a coalition of nonprofits that represent Florida’s diverse communities,” he wrote, adding that the group had “helped craft public statements of support” from the League of Women Voters of Florida, Veterans for All Voters, and Alianza for Progress (Perez did not respond to request for comment).
“All registered Florida voters deserve the opportunity to participate in primary elections and make their voices heard,” said League President Jessica Lowe-Minor in a written statement. “Closed primaries unfairly disenfranchise millions of voters, particularly independent and NPA voters, and contribute to political extremism. Any effort to reform our primary system to meaningfully increase voter participation and access is welcome.”
Although there remains some question whether the state of Florida would legally challenge the switch, Gelber noted that the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the issue in 1986 in Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut. The high court ruled states cannot impose a closed primary system because it would deny the political party its right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to enter political association with individuals of its own choosing.
“We’re taking this process and trying to get as many viewpoints as possible,” Fried said. “Those people who decide to shut down the conversation without hearing the data and understanding the moment are living in an old-time political system.
“Times today are very different. And so it would be irresponsible of me to not bring this conversation to the Democratic Party … and so we want to make sure that we’re doing it right. We’re doing it methodically. We’re getting as many different viewpoints as possible, and ultimately the party executive meeting will dictate whether or not we move forward.”
That meeting has yet to be scheduled.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2025.