About a dozen people showed up on Thursday to a campaign event for Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried, a Washington Free Beacon investigation has found.
Although an ABC affiliate reported 30 at the event in Pensacola, a photo analysis indicates the number was far lower. Video posted by the local outlet from the campaign event shows less than a dozen sitting to listen to Fried, and several of the people appear to be affiliated with the campaign or journalists.
@NikkiFried starts by addressing Gov. DeSantis signing off on the ban on abortions after 15-weeks. @weartv pic.twitter.com/sKCO70k1Jh
— Olivia Iverson (@OliviaIversonTV) April 14, 2022
A zoomed out image from the reporter indicates a handful of attendees standing around the event. It is unclear how the reporter reached a count of thirty.
I can count around 30 people here at this #Pensacola event, not including @NikkiFried’s staff. pic.twitter.com/swzJrGDScG
— Olivia Iverson (@OliviaIversonTV) April 14, 2022
Fried, who launched her campaign in June 2021, has served as the state's agricultural commissioner and is running in 2022 to unseat Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who she has criticized as "borderline fascist." She also has boasted that a pervasive liberal bias in American media will help her campaign, even as she has alleged elections face a "rigged system in Florida." This week, she compared DeSantis's governorship to "Hitler on his rise to power."
"What I said, very clearly, was that a lot of the actions that Ron DeSantis has been taking mirror some of the actions that were taken by Hitler on his rise to power," Fried said on WPTV.
A February poll showed more than half of voters back DeSantis for reelection. In the Democratic primary, 44 percent back Democratic frontrunner Charlie Crist. Just 27 percent back Fried.