Florida Democrats are leaning on their biggest adversary as they look to revamp their party ahead of 2024: Gov. Ron DeSantis.

After two tough election cycles in a row — including a particularly bruising 2022 midterm year — the state party has begun an aggressive counteroffensive against DeSantis in an effort to claw its way back from the brink of political irrelevance, seeing the top-tier Republican presidential hopeful as the perfect foil to fuel their political resurgence.

The animosity between Florida Democrats and the state’s powerful Republican governor isn’t new. What’s changed, party officials and operatives said, is that DeSantis’ nascent bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has elevated their platform and allowed them to appeal to national Democrats — including donors — in a way that’s been lacking in recent years.

“What it’s done for Florida Democrats is one: it has brought us fire in our bellies to take him down, and two: it is absolutely raising the national profile of Florida Democrats, because we are the frontlines,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in an interview with the Miami Herald.

“We live this every single day,” she continued. “We live every bill he passes, every veto of the budget, every insane decision he’s making with the Department of Education, all the things that he is doing.”

Since taking the helm of the state party in February, Fried has sought to refashion it as a more-aggressive, sharper-tongued political force, hoping to juice enthusiasm among Democratic base voters and win back donors who have turned their attention elsewhere in recent years amid growing skepticism of Democrats’ chances of winning in Florida.