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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Senate top Democrat has left the party and declared “Florida Democrats are dead.”
Senate minority leader Jason Pizzo’s announcement on Thursday by Senator Jason Pizzo is the latest blow for a party that has struggled to define itself after breaking a string of losses in recent years, renaissing his registration to party affiliation.
Pizzo called modern partisanship “confusion,” saying that “members crave practical leaders, not political hacking.”
Florida’s presidential election, the country’s highest swing state, was once determined by the narrowest margin. But the nation has more and more escaped from the Democrats’ grasp, and the GOP has created important intramways at former Democratic bases like Miami-Dade County. Registered Republicans outweigh registered Democrats with more than 1.2 million voters.
Pizzo is on the list of rumored gubernatorial candidates for 2026.
“I think stripping the party’s designated title will help you with more freedom, clear, clean, transparent,” Pizzo said Thursday.
Nikki Fried, chairman of Florida’s Democratic Party, was called “invalid and unpopular” with Pizzo in a statement after his release.
“The failure to build support within our party due to Jason’s Governor’s run led to this last embarrassing temper tantrum. “The Florida Democrats are more united without him.”
Pizzo, a former prosecutor representing parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties in South Florida, is known as a sophisticated debate who is willing to openly criticize both parties.
His Democratic colleagues in the Senate told reporters that they were surprised by his announcement Thursday, but they said they were not the character of “independent thinkers.”
“We are currently in a phase of refocusing,” Democrat Sen. Shevlin Jones said of his party. “I’m not saying we’re dead. I say Democrats have a lot to do and I’m sitting here and not sugarcoat at all.”
Democrats were surprised by the announcement, but the office of Florida Republican Senate President Ben Albritton was notified Thursday morning.
In January, Pizzo told the Associated Press that he didn’t consider running for governor as an independent and welcomed the “challenge” of working within the Democrats.
A string of Florida State Senators have left Democrats in recent months, including state lawmakers Susan Valdes and Hilary Cassel. As a member of her new party, Valdez rose to the top of the house on Thursday and dressed in red to host the floor session.
