Find/Replace Double Space in TextEdit?

I have tried MANY different combinations and can't seem to find out how to replace double spaces with single spaces. I've tried as many combinations of every syntax that seemed relevant below

*from an apple sample ****

-- NOT A FUNCTIONAL SCRIPT. JUST EXAMPLES OF SYNTAX.
tell application "TextEdit"
tell text of document 1
set the color of every word where it is "Verdana" to {65535, 0, 0}
set the color of every paragraph whose first word is "Marker" to {0, 0, 65535}
set the color of every paragraph whose first character of its second word is "G" to {0, 65535, 0}
set the color of every paragraph whose contents contains "Sans" to {0, 65535, 65535}
set the color of every paragraph where it contains "Sans" to {0, 65535, 65535}
set the color of every word where it is "fox" to {0, 0, 65535}
set the color of every text whose contents is "brown" to {0, 0, 65535}
set word 5 to "Shoe"
set every word where it is "Light" to "Dark"
set every attribute run where it contains "Narrow" to "TEXT REMOVED"
set every paragraph where it contains "Negative" to ("---- REPLACED ----" & return) as string
delete (every paragraph where it contains "Bold")
delete (every word where it is "jumped")
end tell
end tell

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How can I designate a string of characters I want replaced. "Word" definitely doesn't work in this case. Any help appreciated.