Florida Gubernatorial Hopeful Nikki Fried to Accept Crypto Donations

Florida Gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried is accepting crypto donations for her campaign via the Florida Consumers First Committee to grant power back to the people.

A committee called Florida Consumers First is accepting crypto for Fried’s Florida gubernatorial race. Fried took a stab at Wells Fargo, whom she blames for enabling the 2008 financial crisis, in a video posted on Twitter.

Wells-Fargo closed her campaign bank account after it was made known that she would support the legalization of cannabis for medical use. In the video, she said she had gleaned firsthand from citizens how banks affect small businesses and criticized Wells Fargo for discriminating against minorities.

Fried’s political play

The treasurer of the Florida Consumers First political committee, Ben Kuehne, said, “By building a forward-looking, twenty-first-century movement, we are giving our grassroots donors and others who feel abandoned by our corrupt political finance system a chance to participate in our mission.”

Fried said that the Florida Consumers First committee accepts crypto because she trusts people to make their own decisions and she wants to grant power back to the people.

Fried struggled to raise funds for her campaign, accruing $110,223 for the committee and $106,086 for her official campaign in November. This is far below what her competitor, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, reported raising.

Kuehne added, “People who believe in Nikki Fried’s expansive message of putting Florida consumers first can fully embrace our movement by contributing through cryptocurrency from our website.”

Texas and Florida governors bullish on crypto

Florida’s current governor Ron DeSantis tabled a proposal to allow businesses to pay state fees in cryptocurrencies on Dec 9, 2021, in Tallahassee. Mayor Suarez of Miami has also been bullish regarding bitcoin. Miami pioneered the creation of MiamiCoin and the funds raised will be disbursed to citizens.

Through low taxes, Suarez has also sought to attract tech firms to the warm, sunny state. He receives his mayoral paycheck in Bitcoin via the Strike app, which forms part of his income. Another governor that is bullish on bitcoin is Texas governor Greg Abbot, who signed a law for Texas to “create a master plan for expanding the blockchain industry in Texas.” This governor welcomed “the bitcoin community” to his election campaign in 2014.

A South Korean politician recently announced that he will be accepting cryptocurrency for campaign donations, and will issue NFTs as receipts, in a drive to attract younger voters.