English
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese (Simplified)
Hindi
Japanese
The knives are coming out within the demoralized Florida Democratic Party after state Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo jumped ship, proclaiming the party’s “dead” as he draws buzz about a potential gubernatorial bid as an Independent.
Pizzo, 48, lamented that the Democratic Party that his father volunteered for in the 1960s is “not the party today,” while acknowledging the internal pressure he faced to step aside as state Senate leader.
“Here’s the issue: The Democratic Party in Florida is dead. But there are good people that can resuscitate it. But they don’t want it to be me,” he said during a floor speech Thursday.
As the mad dash to fill his shoes as leader of the state Senate heats up, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried took some parting shots at him.
“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried snarked in a blunt statement.
“Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum. I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself. The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.”
Pizzo’s stint as the Florida state Senate minority leader was short-lived, having ascended to that role in November. He’s served in the state Senate since 2018.
The newly minted Independent state senator contended that Florida voters don’t want to see “political hacks” in charge — and admonished his former party for turning off voters.
“I am not in this position because of Democrats. I got elected because of NPAs [Not Politically Affiliated], the 3.7 million people who have no party, who have no representation,” he sniped.
“Stripping myself of a title of a party designation allows me to run free and clear, clean and transparent and help many, many more.”
A day before his announcement, Pizzo decried Democratic colleagues who called him racist for resisting legislation to address a water dispute between Miami-Dade cities. One of them — Miami Gardens — has the largest black population in the state.
“I read the plain reading of the law,” Pizzo shot back to his critics Wednesday, referring to the state constitution’s rules limiting how Florida can impact localities. “And if anybody’s feelings are hurt and think I’m a racist for my position, suck it.”
Pizzo also rankled Florida state Senate Democrats by supporting Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and backing an expansion of the Sunshine State’s E-Verify system.
Despite his frustrations with the Democratic Party, Pizzo suggested that he wouldn’t defect to the GOP because “the Republican Party has a lot of problems.”
“The pendulum is going to swing so far that it’s going to swing back,” he remarked.
Once a quintessential battleground state, Florida Republicans have managed to shift the Sunshine State red over the past decade in particular.
Back in 2018, for example, Democrats had roughly 257,175 more registered voters than Republicans, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Now, Republicans have 1,210,883 more than Democrats.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited and can’t run for reelection in 2026, has proclaimed that the Democratic Party in the Sunshine State “is basically a dead, rotten carcass on the side of the road.”
Earlier this year, former state House Reps. Hillary Cassel and Susan Valdés switched from Democrat to Republican.
On Thursday, former Rep. David Jolly, who was a Republican before leaving office in 2017, changed from an Independent to a Democrat.
