Nicole Heather Fried (/friːd/ FREED;[1] born December 13, 1977) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the chair of the Florida Democratic Party since 2023.

Nicole Heather Fried was born December 13, 1977,[2] in Miami, Florida, to Ronald, an attorney, and Lori, a stay-at-home mother.

[5][8] Among her major clients as a lobbyist were the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, the Walt Disney Company, Duke Energy, and HCA Healthcare.

[3][5] Fried won the Democratic nomination for Florida commissioner of agriculture in 2018, easily defeating Jeff Porter, the mayor of Homestead and R. David Walker, an environmental activist, despite her primary opponents criticizing her for her past campaign contributions to Republicans.

[10][11] In the general election, Fried faced off against the Republican nominee Matt Caldwell, a state representative from North Fort Myers.

[15] During the campaign, Fried also pledged to "ensure full background checks are completed on gun permits",[14] a task which falls under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Agriculture.

[15] Fried endorsed Amendment 4, a ballot initiative which restores voting rights for felons, excluding murderers and felony sex offenders.

[16][17] On August 19, 2018, Wells Fargo announced it was closing Fried's campaign bank account because of her ties with medical marijuana.

[29][30] Fried also crafted legislation with Democratic state representative Javier Fernandez targeting Florida gun laws.

[31] In August 2019, the Florida Department of Agriculture appointed two registered lobbyists for the Florida Sugar Cane League to consult on the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual Project Delivery Team, which was set to advise the United States Army Corps of Engineers on procedures for lake levels.

Republican U.S. representative Brian Mast, whose district includes part of Lake Okeechobee, sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers seeking the lobbyists' removal, alleging the appointments were an attempt to force sugar industry influence into the process.

[34] In December 2019, Fried abstained from a cabinet vote for the nominee for commissioner of the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, Russell Weigel.

[35] In 2020, Fried's office requested and was granted federal waivers to provide free meals to students, despite schools being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[36] Later in 2020, Fried partly delivered the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, joining 16 other speakers designated as "rising stars".

[37][38] Fried critiqued President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reiterated the Democratic Party's commitment to fighting climate change.

[43] The unanimous opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, stated that Fried had not provided sufficient evidence that Georgia's water use had resulted in the oyster fisheries' collapse.

[64] After her election as agriculture commissioner, Fried was sworn into office using the first Hebrew Bible published in the United States.