TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —
This Week in Politics…Manny Diaz, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, resigned two months after a disastrous November election.
Things were flat-out bad for Florida Dems in December. In what is historically viewed as a battleground state, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election by a landslide 20 points while flipping Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade. Republicans also gained super-majorities in the state House and state Senate and now hold every statewide office.
In his resignation letter, Diaz said there was a lack of resources, a lack of volunteers and a failure to present a unifying message. He also suggested a lack of support from national organizations put the party in a poor position.
"We have plenty of social media activists, not roll-up-your-sleeves volunteers,” Diaz wrote.
“There ain't as many Democrats around as there used to be in the state of Florida, and we had something to do with that in November of 2022," DeSantis said in response to Diaz's resignation.
In 2022 for the first time in state history, registered Republican voters outnumbered registered Democratic voters.
We spoke with Steve Schale, a longtime Democratic strategist and consultant in Florida who ran President Barack Obama's successful campaign in 2008, about his party's November failures.
"From the top of the ticket down, there wasn't a lot of money raised. You saw sort of the lack of investing in real infrastructure for the party over the decade pay itself off in bad ways,” Schale explained. “I sort of joked over the years that you think you hit rock bottom as a Democrat, and you find a new rock and a new bottom, but this is probably rock bottom.”
Schale says he doesn’t disagree with much of what Diaz wrote in his letter and as the party looks to elect his successor next month, he says they should look for “someone with stature,” but mostly someone "focused on raising money to do the basic things a party should do organize locally, recruit candidates to run down the ballot and registered voters.”
Schale, a fervent Jacksonville Jaguars fan, perhaps implies finding a Coach Doug Pederson-type (who led the Jags to the playoffs this year).
“I mean if it takes longer to find this person, don't rush the vote,” Schale says. “I'm a Jaguars fan, like we have had some bad coaches over the years. Take your time to find the right person, it'd be better off to wait six months to find the right candidate than it would be to get somebody wrong this time.”
Despite the overwhelming success Republicans have had as of late in fundraising and at the ballot box, Schale — like Diaz— is not buying the idea that Florida’s status as a swing-state is officially over.
“Nothing in politics is ever permanent. There are definitely things that have to get fixed. But Florida is not fundamentally a hugely different state than it was, you know, four years ago, or two years ago, or eight years ago,” Schale says. “It's definitely gotten more Republican, there's no question, but it's not overwhelmingly so."
"My hope is the next chair focuses on those things that they can control. Building a good base, building a foundation, recruiting candidates, raising money, recruiting voters, and then that way, you know, hopefully the next candidate comes along and inspires people, raises money and they have a better foundation to run from," Schale added.
Florida Democrats say executive committees will meet Feb. 25 to elect a new chair.