Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where stories about the power of focus and resilience are revealed by the people who live those stories. And now the host of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, Jack Hopkins, Hello and welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:22

I'm your host, Jack Hopkins. The Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I'm your host, Jack Hopkins. Today, I am fortunate, very fortunate indeed, to have with me chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Freed. Welcome, Nikki.

Speaker 3: 0:37

Thanks, Jack, for having me on. I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Well, as am I. I will say for you and anybody that's listening, first of all anybody that's listening't do everything like maybe the system expects you to do it. And that's one thing I respect and admire so much about you, because you've demonstrated you are not hindered by those lines, are not hindered by those lines. You are not afraid to make some waves and to address matters that need to be addressed, even if they are uncomfortable and not particularly helpful to your political career. To bring up.

Speaker 3: 1:37

Yeah, yeah, you know I've always been an independent thinker, that's. You know, when I was, I lobbied before I was elected in 2018. And I had my dad is a diehard Republican, my mom's a diehard Democrat I was a lobbyist. Most of my friends during the time as a lobbyist I was a Republican. They were Republican, but yet, you know, I'm still a Democrat. So I just always kind of just, even when I was Commissioner of Agriculture, you know my team used to say to me like when we find solutions to things they used to say it's not, you know, left, right, like it's outside the box. We need to find the Nikki Freed solution to this problem.

Speaker 2: 2:13

Right.

Speaker 3: 2:13

And you know, just kind of like looking at it from a different perspective and not taking necessarily the democratic lane of this, but let's figure out a solution that's going to work for everybody, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:25

I got a little bit of rebellion streak. I got myself arrested last year and I was like, yeah, and here's the thing, you were arrested supporting a rock-solid cause, right, and I think that's what's so important to point out and to contrast. That's what's so important to point out and to contrast. You know, we've seen plenty of outspoken people who aren't afraid to get out of the lines from the Republican Party, right, but what's not always and in fact I would argue is seldom there, it's not in support of a cause that is best for the greater good, right. It's not for everybody. It tends to be fairly political, party specific, right. So I'm looking after you, my Republican constituents or supporters. This is going to hurt the people in the other party, but that's okay because we don't care about them. All of the issues that I look at that you've gotten behind, they are issues that matter to everybody. People in both parties benefit.

Speaker 3: 3:41

That's right and I've always, and it's one of my greatest pet peeves, especially when it comes to politics, that it unfortunately attracts some of the worst people on both sides of the aisle.

Speaker 3: 3:51

But some of the worst people because they're doing it for their own ego or they like to wear the lapel pin to be able to get into office spaces and reserve seats at events and the handshaking of things, and not really for the actual public service part of it. And I get on my Democrats all the time. You've got to come home and do the constituency services. You got to come home and look at ways to help people, regardless of Democrat, republican.

Speaker 3: 4:17

You know, when I was elected in 2018, I represent all 22 million people, not just you know that this eight million, the 6, 4 million people that voted for me, and not just the Democrats. You know my job was for all 22 million Floridians and it's really important that when you're fighting for causes and you're fighting for things, it's because it's benefiting everybody. And you're right, access to reproductive health care is across the board. It's not only for Democrats, you know it's for everybody and that's what I got arrested for. But I'm also, you know, as if anybody has ever followed me and how I started my career and really in politics, was the advocacy of legalization of cannabis, again not a democratic issue. It is a people person issue.

Speaker 2: 4:57

Indeed.

Speaker 3: 4:57

And medical marijuana and access to that, and so, yeah, I try to make sure that I'm not just advocating for things because they have a D next to their name or that's the issue that only impacts, you know, a small group of people.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Right, and that's important to point out. About the medical marijuana I was about to say I am a medical marijuana card holder. I was, but now Missouri passed a law where you don't have to have the card anymore. As a veteran, as somebody who had a traumatic brain injury and has dealt with chronic pain for 30 years, I have found, in my case, particularly gummies help me sleep and get better rest, and therefore it helps with my pain. Now I bring this up not only because you've been such a powerful advocate for this, but I live in a county where eight out of ten people who voted in this last election and the election prior in 2020 voted for Donald Trump. It's a very red area. Well, guess what? The medical marijuana dispensaries around here are busy, busy, busy, which tells me there are a hell of a lot of Republicans who are using medical marijuana.

Speaker 3: 6:18

A hundred percent Like. First of all, like this is one of those issues that truly cross crosses over political parties. You had Donald Trump endorsing the amendment here in the state of Florida for legalization, and Kamala Harris. That shows that this is one of those last issues that people across the board can get behind, because everybody's got stories like yours. Everybody's got a family member, including my own. My dad currently is going through cancer and he's on the medical marijuana registry. My mother went through chemo she's on it. My grandmother, who just wants her gummies to play Mahjong, like she just you know. So it's really everybody's got these stories, and you know.

Speaker 3: 7:00

And when I was commissioner of agriculture, when I was crisscrossing the state, I would be talking to generational farmers and ranchers and sometimes it would be three generations that were actually taking me around on their tours and it would be the oldest generation and these are definitely not Democrats, but it's the older generation that would come to me and whisper in my ear when they had time with me Be like, so when can I start growing? You know, it's just one of those things that that is just you know. Like it's. It's kind of like just mind your own damn business if you want to smoke, if you want to have, you know, gummies. If you want to, you take whatever um instead of alcohol.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Have at it, it's your life, it's your choice you bet that we're doing safely yeah, and I, I had a little help with this and you'll know in a moment. You'll know who I had help from and it's probably blush-worthy, but I've got to do it. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Nikki. Happy birthday to you.

Speaker 3: 8:04

Thank you, I think you know who that, who might have, I would imagine, I would imagine.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Hey, you know what, as far as I know, I am now the only podcaster who has sang happy birthday to you on.

Speaker 3: 8:19

Absolutely, but you get to compete with Kamala Harris last year. Absolutely, but you get to compete with Kamala Harris last year. So so last year, you know, during the holiday season, you know, there's, you know, holiday parties at the White House and at the VPs for residents, and so happened to be the one at her residence was on my birthday last year, and so when I saw her she has really great staff, as I do too, and her staff had let them know that it was my birthday and so she had a present waiting for me and so I got to say she got to sing happy birthday to me.

Speaker 3: 8:52

But this is the first podcast that somebody sang happy birthday, so yes, Well, how cool, though, to say Kamala Harris got me a birthday present. She did.

Speaker 2: 9:02

Well, and I'm going to kind of hop, hop around here, I, I like, I kind of like to do I'm not much of a linear, you know with the progression through the, the episode, uh, I think that's probably my adhd, right, but it also makes for a kind of a more spontaneous uh episode, I think right, something I I know about you you left I think this was around 2006, maybe you left the law firm you were with to become a public defender yep now just a guess, but I'm saying you didn't, that wasn't uh to increase your income no.

Speaker 2: 9:43

No.

Speaker 3: 9:44

It was a fantastic law firm, that I was the first job that I had after graduating from law school and it was a great firm to commercial litigation, good, good people. But I kind of was sitting there doing a lot of research and writing and said this is not how I want to spend the rest of my life. This is not why I went to law school. It was to be pushing you know papers for for partners and doing all this. And so, yeah, I took a more than 50% pay cut um to to go into the public defender's office, moved out of Jacksonville back to Alachua County, which is where Gainesville is. University of Florida is where I had gone to undergrad law school and my master's and yeah, so it was back in a college town but, yeah, it was a pretty substantial pay cut.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Well, I've always kind of thought this and you can correct me if I'm wrong or tell me if this is a poor analogy or even comparison I've always felt like anybody that's in politics that has been a public defender from the outside looking in. A lot of the people that you're defending as a public defender are probably a better representation of the public at large than people in Washington.

Speaker 3: 11:08

Oh, for sure. You know, and I think that that's you know. I've always been somebody who I come from the Jewish faith, and inside of the Jewish faith we have a phrase called tikkun olam to heal the world and that was really ingrained in me when I was a child. In fact, now I have it tattooed on my arm.

Speaker 3: 11:28

But it really was ingrained that you had a responsibility to give back and to do good. And so when I had the opportunity to go into the public defender's office, I did. I saw all walks of life, all backgrounds, all socioeconomic backgrounds. I mean. Granted, if they're coming to the public defender's office and the PD is representing them, they obviously don't have the financial means to hire their own private attorneys, but it was all walks of life and, you know, sometimes there were kids that parents weren't willing to spend, you know, money for their attorneys. But it really was really eyeopening too of how people get into the system and they stay in the system, because once you have a criminal record, once you have been exposed to a certain lifestyle, it's hard to break it and that's really ultimately.

Speaker 3: 12:13

You know, I always said that when I got frustrated enough that I had to leave because I needed every one of my clients to have every ounce of my energy, from the first client that I ever had to my last.

Speaker 3: 12:24

And what I found along the way is, you know, that this new kind of mission for me, that I had to find a way to fix things before people got into the system. You know, making sure that? And a lot of them are minority communities. How do we go into communities and and and build them up and to make sure that they're small businesses and there's roads and there's quality of life and and they're build them up and to make sure that they're small businesses and there's roads and there's quality of life and and they're not going into food banks but actual food stores and self-esteem aspects? And and that's also what got me into the cannabis world, you know too, is I saw the just the disparity between you know, when one of my clients was arrested for some other charge, but it started off with, the odor of cannabis was detected and that was the probable cause for whatever came next.

Speaker 3: 13:09

And I just saw like, all right, I went to UF undergrad masters Like I just said, law school. I know what my friends were doing and you know and and that we weren't targeted. You know and so saw that the racial divide and saw now that it was my client's word versus the law enforcement officer's word and sometimes you had bad cops. You know that would be into these communities that were using cannabis as a way to find reasons to arrest that person for whatever the other issue is. And I just knew that that's not right and that has to be fixed. And that's always when I come into these spaces talking about cannabis or criminal justice reform or economic opportunities for minority communities. It really is my lived experiences in the public defender's office.

Speaker 2: 13:59

Yeah, I haven't ever looked at the statistics on this, but I'm going to say there were probably a lot more arrests for crack than there were cocaine. Yeah. Cocaine. You know cocaine was kind of an elitist not an elitist, but you know what I mean the disparity between the people who were using crack and were using cocaine In fact that was. You know, it was a show of status at one time. You want to do a line of coke?

Speaker 2: 14:41

You know nobody ever showed their status by doing crack. You know, it was in a lot of people, a lot of people who get off work and go home and will drink a highball or something to kind of wind down and relax. I know my grandfather, every day, every day, and he would only have one, but he would come home and in fact this is crazy his doctor because he had high blood pressure now at the time. We know things are a little different now, but at the time his doctor suggested that he do that, that he come home after because he had a pretty stressful job come home, drink one highball, just kind of wind up, and so that's what he did. My point is and it will take a while to get there it's no different for somebody to come home and eat a gummy or you know.

Speaker 3: 15:42

For sure. And that's exactly it. I mean, like I'm not a big drinker, you know, but when I do drink I'm a bourbon girl, bourbon whiskey girl, it's like I like my scotch, I like my bourbons, but but it's the same thing, I don't. You know, we, we all. You know life is stressful.

Speaker 3: 15:56

Let's, let's take that Life right now is stressful, whether you're in politics or you're just trying to make ends meet. You know, yes, you should always find healthy avenues to relieve that stress, whether it's at the gym or going to the boxing or going out with girlfriends or whatever it is. But but if you find that in order for you to be able to be able to wake up the next day and take back on the world and go to your work, if it means coming home and rolling a joint, who the hell cares?

Speaker 2: 16:28

Right.

Speaker 3: 16:28

Like, literally, who cares? I too, I have not been able to sleep for a majority of my life. You know, I've just always have had some sleep conditions, and my brain doesn't turn off at night after. I just keep going.

Speaker 2: 16:42

I get that.

Speaker 3: 16:43

You know, and so the only thing that allows me to fall asleep at night and stay asleep and wake up as a functional human being is I take edibles at night. You know, I'm a chocolate girl, so I don't do the, I do gummies, and I'm a store of the chocolates too. So I know which dispensaries. Now some of the dispensaries are putting RSO in their stuff, and you know, and are upping it every once in a while. I'll do my own chocolates or cookies and do my own stuff.

Speaker 3: 17:14

You bet, and definitely in the next 15, 20 years, whenever I retire. Y'all are welcome to my Scandal Bar down in Key West that I will be opening. That will be a combination of a dispensary and smoke.

Speaker 2: 17:28

Nice, nice, nice.

Speaker 3: 17:31

That's the last chapter, and you're involved in politics enough. You have enough friends that have been in scandals, and so the entire, the entire bar will be surrounded by like news clippings of all the Florida politicians. And there will be lots more, but there has been, and we'll be all over the paper.

Speaker 2: 17:49

I love that. I love that. I love that. Yeah, I'll definitely come to your store. I want to ask you, since we're talking about marijuana, a plant, uh when you were with a department of agriculture? It's funny because, living here in the Midwest, I think corn beans, you know. Of course, citrus fruits come to mind when I think about Florida, but I got to thinking. I thought, other than citrus fruits, I'm not sure I know anything else that's grown in Florida. So what are some of the other?

Speaker 3: 18:27

So. So agriculture in the state of florida, um, is the second largest economic driver for our state and again, most people wouldn't know that. You think of disney, you think of our beaches, you think of citrus, but you don't think about agriculture. We've got two million people that work inside of agriculture in florida. It is literally a 137 billion dollar industry in the state of florida. So we grow. We are the specialty crop uh capital of the of the country, Um, so we grow everything I mean from timber. Timber is actually the number one commodity in the state of Florida.

Speaker 3: 18:58

So it's all over the pan handle. We're number two in the nation when it comes to our ranches for cows. Um, so we only second to Texas. Uh, we have, yeah, uh, we. We also, um, talking about Kamala Harris earlier, uh, that we are the only state, uh, in the continental United States that grows coconuts. Um, so we have coconut trees. Um, in Florida, we've got, uh, sugar cane, we've got sweet corn, we've got cotton, um, I mean we've got green beans, we've got tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries I mean we really have it all here. And now we've got hemp, which is the sixth largest now as our ag commodities go.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Is it really?

Speaker 3: 19:42

Yep.

Speaker 2: 19:42

Interesting and revenue wise. Any approximate figures on what that's bringing in to the state?

Speaker 3: 19:50

well, I guess it's 137 billion dollar industry. So that is, that is yeah, I guess you did.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Yeah, like I said, it is the second largest economic driver for the state.

Speaker 3: 20:01

Um, I mean, we've got 46 000 working farms and ranches, everything from small uh to to the big guys. It's all over the map. And it's actually when I was elected, people kept saying what is a good Jewish girl from Miami who's a lawyer lobbyist in the cannabis space doing running for commissioner of agriculture? And so the answer was first of all, it is a large department, it is commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, so I got to use my attorney advocacy arm for the consumer side of things.

Speaker 3: 20:33

I typically got left behind in the job, but you know, being from the cannabis space, it is an agricultural commodity. But I really did not have any real working knowledge of agriculture when I got elected. Working knowledge of agriculture when I got elected and it took me some time for the people inside of agriculture to understand that. First and foremost, I am an advocate, and that is what you need here in the Department of Agriculture somebody to be an advocate for agriculture. And shortly I was having drinks with the Farm Bureau presidents and getting invited to every association keynote speech. You know everywhere, but it was one of the most fascinating jobs and loved every single moment of it. I mean being able to protect what is the fabric of the state of Florida, which is agriculture. I mean it's on our license plates. The citrus oranges are on our license plates. It's the bedrock of our state.

Speaker 2: 21:28

The citrus oranges are on our license plates. It's the bedrock of our state. Well, like you said, that's if you didn't have any real ag experience or knowledge. Look, politics is full of people who have a wealth of knowledge about subjects, but they don't have any passion. You know, yep.

Speaker 2: 21:54

It's the knowledge you can. You can pick up. Yep, I've found passion is one of those things you've. For the most part, you've either got it or you don't. You, you don't go out and learn passion, and so, uh, it's cool when somebody comes in with the passion and and that what you were pointing out to them. Look, the important thing here is I'm a huge advocate yep that's what.

Speaker 2: 22:17

For this to get off the ground, for this to go, for this to grow, there's got to be energy. Yep, I mean, obviously, people before me have had the knowledge, but they, they haven't gotten this you know this off the ground, so maybe it's passion.

Speaker 3: 22:32

And the other thing is, too, is, yes, passion, but it's also the willingness, as we were talking about before we got on to this is also the willingness to change things and to be able to walk into something, especially agriculture which is still a very old boy network, especially agriculture, which is still a very old boy network.

Speaker 3: 22:49

They're still very dominated by white men and, to go first, female ever elected to commissioner of agriculture, not just the state of Florida but the entire South. And so to walk in with fresh eyes, new perspective, to be looking at things from a different direction and coming up with solutions that may be different than my predecessors had had, because they're looking at it from a different perspective, and so we really were able to come in and we put a list together Like, for instance, like we knew, and still today, that people involved in agriculture is actually number one suicide rates is in agriculture.

Speaker 3: 23:24

I did not know that Because, if you think about it, most people inside of agriculture are a little bit further away from their neighbors. You know, mostly living in communities that are smaller have less access to, you know, to the internet because of broadband access, to quality roads, to hospitals, and so there's a lot of seclusion and they're barely making ends meet. Yeah, the big guys, the big guys out there are making hand over fist, and that's part of the reason why our you know, our food costs are so high, because they're making a lot of money, but it's the mid to small, you know, farms and ranches that they are just barely making ends meet, and so it is really so. Anyhow, long story short.

Speaker 3: 24:06

Um, I came in and I was like, what do we do about this? And so we talked about a lot of doing like tele-mental health, you know, being able to get in there, and then my team was like, wait a second, these guys don't have broadband. How are we getting the tele-health to them? So we were coming up with different ideas and strategies and working then with the Biden administration to get a lot of broadband into these communities and to form a mental health advocacy inside the Department of Agriculture. But again, it took a different type of leader to walk in and want to solve problems that maybe my predecessors either knew and didn't think through it, or it just wasn't on their radars.

Speaker 2: 24:46

Yeah, I'm going to, I'll make this assumption about you and then you can tell me whether I'm right or wrong. Just because of some similarities we have that I do know about, I'm guessing you, like me, kind of sometimes thrive on the resistance, the pushback against your right, whereas I know a lot of people who go through life not speaking out or not introducing something new or new idea, new thought, that cuts against great, because they have kind of thin skin right and the first time somebody criticizes them they're, they're deflated right. That that's when my brain really functions at its best. I, I need it. In fact I need it. Um, I can't do my best work unless I've got somebody saying, oh yeah, that's dumb, or pushing against me. Are you kind of like that?

Speaker 3: 25:49

Yeah, and so much so like one, if you're trying to make progress, you're trying to do good and everybody's agreeing with you, then you're doing something wrong.

Speaker 3: 25:58

You know, you're trying because otherwise it would have been done before, and one of those examples. Going back to the cannabis conversation, I'm also a gun owner. I have a concealed weapons permit and I have inherited a firearm from my grandfather, but I've always wanted to purchase a new firearm to be able to carry more frequently. And, recognizing that, as a cannabis user, that we are not allowed to purchase a firearm, it is against the laws and it's on the ATF form I think it's question 10, echo, that specifically states that.

Speaker 3: 26:36

And so I walked in into the commissioner's job and I turned to my team and I said we're going to fix this, we're going to sue the federal government. And they're like what? Because one of the things that is also underneath the Commissioner of Agriculture was the concealed weapons program for the state of Florida, one of the largest in the entire nation, and so we found a nexus on because of the advocacy I was doing on cannabis and the fact that I was, you know, overseeing the gun purchasing. We worked for years. The goal was to have it filed in 2020, this lawsuit, but of course the pandemic hit and so priorities shifted and we filed the lawsuit April 20th of 2022. And we filed a federal lawsuit on the discrimination of medical cannabis users being able to purchase a firearm and at the time April 2022, the administration is Democrat.

Speaker 3: 27:40

And so here you have the only statewide elected Democrat who was running for governor of the state of Florida, filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration, and so the conversations, of course, in-house, were like you are going to get slammed.

Speaker 3: 27:59

I mean, granted, we called the Department of Justice first. We talked to Merrick Garland's office. We told the White House we were doing this, that this is obviously a policy that was put in place way before they got there and to make sure that they knew that this was going on. But fellow Democrats lit me up.

Speaker 3: 28:16

Oh I bet Suing the Democratic president of the United States, and I kind of was like but it's the right thing to do and I will take whatever is coming at me because we have to make progress on this issue and this is one of those things that just needs to happen. And that case is still going on. It's in the 11th Circuit here in Florida, but it's also, interestingly enough, was the same exact issue that Hunter Biden was convicted on. So everything kind of has you know, a way of you know making progress.

Speaker 2: 28:55

Certainly. Yeah of um you know making progress, but certainly, yeah, yeah, and that's again like it's in the beginning. That's the kind of thing I I like about you, because you said something and that to me that's really the only thing that matters. You said but it was the right thing yeah that for the most of the time, that should push everything else out to the periphery.

Speaker 3: 29:19

If it's the right thing to do, then it's the right thing to do that's right, no matter, no matter the consequences personally, no matter the consequences politically and no matter who you're having to challenge.

Speaker 3: 29:31

You know, and and again at that time, you know, everybody just saw it, as you know, nikki Freed suing Joe Biden, and you know, but it was hard, but it was even.

Speaker 3: 29:44

You know, because I was elected with a lot of support from the Parkland families and from some of the families that have been involved with gun sense regulations and victim families and had to have a separate conversation with them all and say, listen, this is actually providing more safety for, you know, people are having to get the background checks when they purchase a firearm and if you're going into using cannabis, you know that you're doing it safely and going through the regulated market, which means that we need both of those to be able to coexist. But it had to have those conversations to work through it because, again, it's the right thing to have done. It provides safety on both sides of that conversation. And again, what is the difference between somebody having alcohol and somebody smoking weed when it comes to gun ownership? Going back to my PD days, there was never a time in my entire four years as being a public defender did my client come in and say Ms Freed, I was just too high when I shot up the liquor store? Like.

Speaker 3: 30:42

I was too high on crack or, or you know, meth or alcohol, but but never weed, and and so it really is just kind of getting a cultural change that has to happen.

Speaker 2: 30:53

Yeah, and those last, in that last hour, 30 minutes before I go to bed, after I've taken a gummy, I don't find myself sitting around looking at my wife and saying there's no one. I feel like going robbing someplace. That's just not happening. That's not happening, you know. So let's talk about Ron DeSantis for a moment, because one thing I know is again and really I think that's really where you really jumped onto my radar, right, because you were not afraid of Ron DeSantis you criticized Ron DeSantis like few other people were willing to. And while I didn't say his name earlier when I mentioned that, yeah, we've got outspoken Republicans, but they aren't necessarily behind something that's good for everyone, as opposed to the examples I gave with you Look, rhonda Sanders is outspoken, but he's also a hateful man.

Speaker 3: 32:14

Yep.

Speaker 2: 32:15

Right, he's also a hateful man, yep Right. He makes no bones about. If you don't fit into this category, I don't care about you. In fact, I will work against you. Yep. What do you think his political future is, and how does your political future, where does it fit in with what his might be?

Speaker 3: 32:38

My hope is that he has no political future. Where does it fit in with what his might be? My hope is that he has no political future. This is not a good person, you know. I spent four years on the cabinet with him. You know the cabinet. We took a retreat, a trade mission, to Israel, so we have spent a lot of time together. And I always talk about the fact that you know, for those four years, twice did he make eye contact with me Twice.

Speaker 3: 33:03

That tells you that underneath it all, that there's nothing there, you know, and when you make eye contact and eye contact is so important to human interaction- you bet it is To look into somebody's soul to see that they're interacting with you, that they're listening to the conversation, they're not distracted by whatever else is around them, and but when you do, look that there's nothing behind those eyes. And I and I had told everybody when whether it's during debates or whether he's on TV, turn off the volume and just watch his, his facial expressions, watch how he doesn't his eyes like it, just you could tell that he's just mean spirited and there's not a heart behind him, and and so I hope that. And then he's weird. I mean he is just like, don't ever try eating with him. He stuffs his mouth. Whether that's a distraction to not have to interact with people, but he's just weird, socially awkward.

Speaker 2: 33:58

That's awkward, fits him too. Every time I watched that man, it's like my God. He looks so uncomfortable in his own skin.

Speaker 3: 34:06

Yeah. So I think what happened along the way, first of all like he's always been that way, and I think that when he ran for governor and won that, the Heritage Foundation which we know is what's controlling Project 2025 and a lot of the Republican stuff that's happening today got a hold of him and said we're going to make you president, just follow this playbook. And for six years, that's exactly what he did. He followed this playbook from the don't say gay bill to removing of state attorneys from office, to a six-week abortion ban, going after immigrants, the lawsuits with Disney and the cruise ship industry and everything in between that he has done book banning, you know, going after higher education and so he didn't do it because that was what was in the best interest of the people of the state. I mean trying to take our state parks and put them into pickleball courts. I mean just crazy stuff. And so I'm hoping that the American people saw his awkwardness, saw that his policies weren't in the best interest of the people of the state.

Speaker 3: 35:10

We have property insurance in Florida is crippling our state. We are the number one property insurance in the entire country. And, yes, we've got hit by hurricanes, but there's ways to moderate this, but they've given blank checks. In the insurance industry there's been a 400% increase of premiums since he became governor and we are the number one inflation in the country because he refused to bring down some of the Biden dollars for infrastructure, for the IRA, for the Inflation Reduction Act, and I mean even now we're fighting on kids care, which was approved by, which is a Medicare expansion program, which he's refusing to bring down the money for our kids, to feed our kids. I mean he's just not a good person and so I'm hoping that the American people saw enough of him during the presidential run. That it's over, that it's over over. I mean I know that in his heart, which whatever is there, um, that he wants that he wants to be president of the united states and he's certainly going to try to position himself.

Speaker 3: 36:08

He has term limited out in 26 and so my hope is that he fades into into the darkness, goes on to. He can have a fox news show, he can write some books, he can be a you know, whatever else his is, but hopefully it's not in politics, and so I don't know how that interacts necessarily with mine per se, but he has done some significant destruction to the state, changing the name of the game when it comes to even voter registration citizens initiatives. This year we had both cannabis legalization Amendment 3, and abortion access Amendment 4 on the ballot. He not only used the full weight of him, but he also used the full weight of his office. We had six government agencies that basically put out false information, using government dollars to go after these amendments and spent roughly $50 million of taxpayer dollars to go after constitutional amendments. So you know he needs to be done.

Speaker 2: 37:04

Yeah, I guess if there were any two things I can think of that I would say to Governor DeSantis one, I hope he has already found a pair of cowboy boots that fit. And two, when you are going to do some press, some campaign photos of you doing physical labor, you know, tucking your pants into your white boots, don't ditch the sweater. Ditch the sweater, they don't go together. Right, it makes it look like the prop that it is.

Speaker 3: 37:38

so my last day in office. Um, I had, for a couple of days we had we had been setting up like videos of just you know, all the things that we had done, because it's very easy for you know, the republicans attacked me for all the time that I was commissioner. Then, when I ran for governor, to to lose the, to lose the accomplishments that we was commissioner, and then, when I ran for governor, to lose the accomplishments that we had inside the department, to the political noise, and so we really wanted to make sure that we set the record straight on all of the amazing things that we did in those four years. I mean most movement on energy efficiency, of helping the citrus industry to helping agriculture, new commodities. I mean we just really did a tremendous amount of work in my department and the team members.

Speaker 3: 38:30

But the other last 15 minutes of my whole speeches was directed to Ron and it was an outgoing statement that basically said all right, you just pulled off 19.1. And my primary opponent, charlie Crist. It was a disaster for Democrats in 2022. And 19 point loss. We are now in a super minority in both the House and the Senate and first time since reconstruction that we did not have a statewide Democrat in the state of Florida, and so I said to Ron what are you going to do with this? Are you going to recognize that you have an opportunity to govern for all 22 million people, or are you going to take your ambitions and you're going to only govern for the 4.5 million Floridians that voted for you and leaving the other 15 million apart to seek higher office?

Speaker 3: 39:26

And I said, history is going to judge you by the decisions that you are going to make in the next six months. And I was right. He did not follow my lead, because if he had come in, imagine this if Ron DeSantis had come in in 2022, excuse me, 2023, and had an agenda that brought people together, that lifted people up, that truly showed what a conservative Republican used to be, he might more dividing and conquering and divisive politics and went to such an extreme direction that he's never going to be elected president of the United States.

Speaker 2: 40:05

No no.

Speaker 3: 40:06

You know, but it is what it is.

Speaker 2: 40:08

I'm glad you brought that up, because I don't know whether this will be popular or not Probably not. But then again, I don't care If Donald Trump would come into office which we know he's not going to, but if he would come into office taking basically the same thing you laid out for DeSantis, because I love this country so much and because I want to see everyone prosper and I don't just mean financially with their health, in all areas of life. As anti-Trump as I am, I would love to see him succeed in governing for everyone. That's right and I would acknowledge him when he did. But I much like desantis, I, I, it's not in him it's, it's not.

Speaker 3: 41:06

It's not in him. And not only is it not in him, but it's who he's also circling around him. You know, at least in the first administration there was good people, there was smart people, right people who could be those guardrails that says let's not go there. But unfortunately, you're seeing what he's unleashing onto the country already. The picks are very intentional picks and they're outside the box, which, again, talking to you and I. Outside the box is good, that's okay. Sometimes politics have to be breaking is good, that's okay. Sometimes politics have to be breaking things down, that's okay. But to have unqualified people that are going to make a mockery of the United States that can put us in, not only national security issues are standing on the world stage the economics of this country, an oligarchy. I mean the fact that Elon Musk hasn't left his side. This is somebody who I don't even know if he's a US citizen. You know if he was even able?

Speaker 3: 42:06

to vote in our elections and got to this country illegally, you know, is the ones who are running the show and it is not for the best interests of the people of this country.

Speaker 3: 42:16

But, yeah, I would welcome that. I would welcome any Republican who says, look, I may have campaigned on these things and I won on these things, but the reality is I'm now president for all Americans and to take those steps to create policies. You know, we've got 4.2 million people in the state of Florida that are on the ACA, Obamacare. If they dismantle the ACA, those are real lives and real people who are going to be in a real financial situation where they may not have access to healthcare and they could be going through chemo, they could be on a wait list, you know, for a liver transplant, I mean all of these things that people are going through. So it is, it is a shame, but, yeah, I would absolutely welcome that if, if Donald Trump had that in him to do. But it's um, and the other thing. I'll say this, and I'll probably be slammed for this that if they were to actually do that, it will be a long time before Democrats come back into power.

Speaker 2: 43:08

Oh, it would, there's no question about it. Yeah, it really would correct me if I'm wrong, but you, you are jewish, correct? Yes, okay, here's I. I especially with, with israel and gaza. I, especially on x, shortly after october 7th, I? I with unreservedly show support for Israel and, more widespread, the Jewish people as a whole. Right, my thing has been for most of my adult life the Jewish people have had their ass kicked enough. That's my take. That's my take. My grandfather fought in World War II and when I was I don't know if I was even old enough to read yet when he was showing me pictures and talking to me about the Holocaust. And so I only ask you that as kind of a lead-in to this question. Kind of a lead-in to this question, because I can only imagine that someone of Jewish faith or someone who's Jewish, when they hear this talk about detention centers, that, going back, in your case, to your parents' generation and the generation before, that has to resonate with you in a way that it can't for me, am I correct?

Speaker 3: 44:50

You're 100% correct, and especially somebody like me who, when I was growing up, as I just saw, I've got Takuna Lum tattooed on my wrist and yes, that is anti-Jewish. In the grand scheme of things, we're not supposed to put tattoos on our body. But I think God will forgive me for this one. But I've also spent a lot of my time growing up in Miami going to Jewish school. I went to day school, was very involved in my international youth organization, went to what's called the March to the Living, which is one week in Poland, one week in Israel. My junior year of high school actually walked through the gates of Auschwitz and Birkenau and Majdanek and to know and to hear the history of how that came to be, that it wasn't just all of a sudden there's concentration camps and all of a sudden, and it wasn't just 6 million Jews, and I think that the people of this country and the world need to remember that it was 6 million Jews, but it was 6 million others too.

Speaker 3: 45:49

That's a good point In society.

Speaker 3: 45:52

There was politicians, there was gypsies, there was those that had disabilities, you know, there was all types of other people that were also killed during the Holocaust. But to know that it didn't happen overnight, that Hitler was democratically elected. The Nazi party was the power that was elected. And then, watching everything from history of, you know, first was the consolidation of the power underneath under Hitler, then it was banning of books, then it was arresting of political operatives, then it was, you know, the military, became part of the actual operations of the government, and then it came the putting, you know, the Jewish community and ghettos. And then it was the putting, the Jewish community and ghettos, and then it was rounding them up. And so, and to be watching some of this rhetoric and some of the crematoriums were landing on people's homes and house and their cars. They knew what was going on and they kept silent.

Speaker 3: 47:08

And you so you're seeing some behavioral similarities between what was during the I mean, we're not talking thousands of years ago. We still have Holocaust survivors today. I mean, granted, they're dying off and they're far and few between at this point. But you know, and so to know, the rhetoric that is coming from the extremes on the right is dangerous. And yes, and that is one of why I fight the way I fight to know that it is still possible that even in our democratic society, watching how easy people can be manipulated, especially because trusted news sources are no longer there, people are going in and are kind of going tribal again and going kind of inside only talking to the people that are in their inner circles.

Speaker 3: 47:59

Yes that is dangerous.

Speaker 2: 48:01

It's very dangerous. It's very dangerous. I've I've been leaning more heavily into that, both on social media and I have a newsletter called the Jack Hopkins Now newsletter, which is about building resilience and dealing with and managing your fears and in my social media posts. One thing I've been doing that's been ruffling some feathers, but that's okay because for the people whose feathers it's not ruffling, who are actually going, hmm, interesting, I think it's being helpful. I'm calling people out on this. I'm saying, hey look, this is not a game, this is not a joke, this is not a paragraph in the newspaper. This is happening right now and we know exactly how it will unfold if we do what I see already happening. And you are right, people are the very thing people have long said. How could that happen? How could they do that? I'm watching people do the thing they could never understand.

Speaker 3: 49:07

Yep.

Speaker 2: 49:07

You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 49:08

Yeah, and it's the same thing that I you know, I'm looking at it from. You know when DeSantis' name has been floated for Secretary of Defense and that is terrifying. Terrifying because one he's already used. He created a militia inside of the state of Florida that he's now used against the people of the state Again. We talked about $50 million that was used to suppress voters. This is somebody who would not think twice if Donald Trump calls him up and says again enemies within you know that that's using you know it's Secretary of Defense you're defending the country.

Speaker 3: 49:45

And if their mind is made up that Democrats are the enemies within, we are on a very dangerous slippery slope. And if you've got somebody who is so as diabolical as ron desantis to use the military against operatives inside of the democratic party and people say, oh my god, nikki, how can you say that again? You know that this is never going to happen.

Speaker 2: 50:14

I'd like to not take that chance right, yeah, and case in point, for for about the last year and a half leading up to the election, in a way that always offered a solution or a direction to go, I was hammering the point home that it's going to get bad in the lead up to this election. If you think it's bad now, just wait. And of course, it did get worse and worse and worse. So initially, you know, a year and a half ago, when I was saying that, I know there were a lot of people rolling there oh, you know, here you go. What's he selling? You know trying to introduce fear to us.

Speaker 2: 50:54

Well, I've had a lot of those people message me and say you know what, a year and a half ago I thought you'd maybe gone off the rails a little bit, but pretty much what you said was going to happen happened. And that's when I remind them. I'm telling you the same thing again Now, after he comes into office. The things that sound too nutty to actually be real, they are real too nutty to actually be real.

Speaker 3: 51:24

They are real. Yeah, and and again, I hope, like I hope, that better angels, you know, are going to prevail here and that it's he gets there. And you know, for him, this was about an ego, this was about getting this. This was about ego. This is about hey, I won in 2020 and I'm going to prove everybody again and be able to kind of go out of this chapter on a high. This is to get rid of all those lawsuits and this is to help financially. I mean, he's selling perfume. The president-elect of the United States is selling perfume.

Speaker 3: 51:55

It is beyond, like beyond, and so I hope that, like he gets there and he says mission accomplished, I'm here and it doesn't actually pursue some of these things, that that has been discussed, or allowing these people that have really dark visions of the world to be able to truly take over Again. I do think and it's part of my job as chair of the Democratic Party is to not every single day be yelling and screaming. That will drive everybody crazy, that doesn't get us any good footing, that doesn't change the narrative, but it's making sure, like, look, if Trump does something good that benefits the people of this country, I'm going to be the first one. And, mark, this is at the time that we're on my birthday on 2024, before he gets in, I will be happy to say that was a good move. You come in and look not a single person in this country believes that government is efficient, that there isn't bureaucratic waste and bureaucratic spending. Not a single person in this country. So I am all in favor of cutting red tape, of getting rid of unnecessary spending, getting our our you know, our our deficit down.

Speaker 3: 53:08

The question is, how does that get done? At what cost? You know, do some of it? Sure, absolutely, but you can't cut social security, medicare, medicaid you know you can't. You can't do things like that. Figure out other ways. And so we will be very watchdog-like, looking to see that, yes, praising things that get done, but also, in the same respect, making sure that when they've gone too far, you know okay, sure, you want to go review the COVID vaccines, fine, but don't go back and look at polio. The COVID vaccine's fine, but don't go back and look at polio. Don't go back and look at mumps and measles and some of these other you know vaccines that have truly saved this country from tremendous healthcare outbreaks. So I think that as long as there's moderation and how his policies get implemented, the country's going to be okay and we'll get through it. But if he takes the extreme that he and surrounds himself by those type of extremists, hold on tight.

Speaker 2: 54:03

I've got a question for you that maybe you have an answer for me. As somebody not directly involved in politics, I can't get my thumb on it. Um, usually in politics or a lot of time anyway I should say, if, if somebody's really driving something hard, uh, you think okay, who are the people lobbying right behind for this? Who's the, for example, like the, the pharmaceutical companies. You know if, if there's a big push for something, you go, okay, well, you know it's Pfizer or whoever they're they're pushing. The thing with RFK Jr, that's kind of baffling to me. It would seem that most of what he's promoting and his ideology about this whole thing would be counterproductive for the pharmaceutical industry, that maybe they would be losing money. So my question then would be who's throwing more money at this, then, than the?

Speaker 3: 55:06

pharmaceutical companies to go the other way. I think that I do think the pharmaceutical companies have the most to lose here and I'm down for that. I mean, I think as a nation we all are down for that.

Speaker 3: 55:18

Sure I'm down for that. I mean, we, I think as a nation, we all are down for that Sure Um. So I don't know if in fact RFK is kind of just a drifter and and just kind of like goes through. I think he in some ways, I think he believes some of this stuff, like I think, I think so I think that he's a believer. And again we go back to this passion thing. I guess having passion for something you believe in, right.

Speaker 3: 55:43

Um, it doesn't mean I'm making you secretary of health, but, um, but I I think that you know some of this stuff and which is why I think, ultimately, at the end of the day, a lot of the things that RFK wants to do isn't going to happen. Do I think that, like when that RFK wants to do isn't going to happen? Do I think that, like when it comes to the FDA? Yeah, the FDA has a lot of problems. I'm going back to their cannabis space. They don't know how to regulate cannabis.

Speaker 3: 56:06

I will never forget in 2019, when I went up to Washington DC and I was working on legalization of hemp for Florida and I was talking to the USDA and to the FDA and I walked into the FDA.

Speaker 3: 56:16

They obviously had not done their research and they spent the first few minutes of our meeting talking to me about cannabis and giving me the history of cannabis, and so I had to stop them and say let me reintroduce myself. But I said to them look, you know, these states across the country, after the Farm Bill of 2018, are legalizing hemp and are utilizing new products that are coming out for human and animal consumption, and we're going to need direction. And they gave me all of these like long hoops and well, what about this and what about that? And I said you know what, guys, I'm going to do it in Florida and you're just going to follow my lead, because you sound like you're 10 years away from having any type of ability to put out directives to any of us. And we did, and they still are not there. And this is now six years later. So there are real significant problems when it comes to these government agencies, agencies. Do I think rfk is the right one to have a solution?

Speaker 2: 57:22

no, he's going to blow shit up yeah, yeah, and I like your answer because it it it mirrors it to a degree what I was thinking. It's like look, you know, I I think, as as crazy as it may sound in this era that we're in, because everybody, everybody thinks everything that happens is just because of money, right. But when I look at RFK Jr, I think you know this guy was born into money, he's always had money. I don't know that money's a big motivator for him at this point in life, I think he's so. He believes, he believes these things and so it's not necessarily somebody throwing money at him to get him to go. This is just what he believes and this is what he wants to do.

Speaker 3: 58:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:05

So, as we start to close out here because again it is your birthday and I'm sure you've got other things you would like to do that that will be fun. How can people listening to this or watching this podcast, how can they support you and the direction that you are going, whether they live in florida or not?

Speaker 3: 58:28

yeah, first of all, follow me on my social platforms. Um, I'm on everything from blue sky. Now it's a, I'm staying on x, so I'm definitely keeping encouraging people to stay on x we.

Speaker 3: 58:38

We can't concede an entire space, and there's a lot of other new platforms and ones that are minority owned. You know everybody get on there. That you know and be on there. That's one. Follow us Also. Follow what we're doing here in Florida when it comes to Democrats. Don't give up on us. Please don't give up on us.

Speaker 3: 58:55

You know there's 22 plus million people here in the state of Florida that need balance back in government, that need people to have leadership that is going to protect everybody in the state. You know, and I always say this to you you know, born and raised here in Miami and Florida, and so were my parents the state used to be so libertarian. If you wanted to go down to Key West and you want to hang out on Duval Street, have at it. You want to go to Tampa, has Gasparilla, which is like Mardi Gras throw bees. You want to go to the 30K, which is the panhandle Redneck Riviera area. People just left you alone. You found your community, you found your places and people left you alone.

Speaker 3: 59:35

What Ron DeSantis has done to this state in six years is try to force everybody to be in his image, and so we've got to get back to balance here in our state. So really encouraging. First of all, everybody, don't give up on Florida. There's a lot of really really good people here that are fighting back every single day. Two, always, we'll put a plug in Go to floridademsorg, even if it's $2, $3, $5, whatever you can afford. Be a monthly subscriber to us. We are doing the really hard work. But, most importantly, just don't give up on us. We're going to fight back. We've been 30 years in the desert wandering and 30 years there's only been three Democrats elected statewide, myself included, and my goal in life is to make sure not in life, but my goal is to make sure that I'm not the last statewide elected Democrat and we'll get back there. But it's going to take some time and patience and people not giving up on us.

Speaker 2: 1:00:29

Well, I want to say that on behalf of at least my followers. Right, I've got a couple of hundred thousand followers. I say for them thank you for being you right, we like you and who you are and how you operate, and we need more people like you. Second, hey, thanks for taking some time out for me on your birthday. I mean, that means a lot that you lot that you didn't have to do that and I'm sure you get plenty of calls. So, thank you. Will we see you run for governor again?

Speaker 3: 1:01:10

You know I love my state and you can't hear that I love every aspect of my state. There will be a time where I will run again statewide. We've got work to do first, and so you know I am rerunning for chair of the Florida Democratic Party to continue rebuilding. But I've got I'm a policy wonk at heart and have lots of ideas of how to make the state better and to create balance back. So don't count me out for not running for governor one time again. But certainly we've got work to do to get us back into a better position and that's so cool about you you're not chasing the title.

Speaker 2: 1:01:46

You you've got stuff you actually want to get done and you'll do it wherever you can most adequately get it done. That's awesome. All right, thank you listen. Happy birthday, go have a drink or something and enjoy the rest of the day.

Speaker 3: 1:01:59

Thank, you, nikki. I appreciate it. Thanks, jack, and thanks to all of your listeners. Take care, we'll see you next time.