Florida Democratic Party Chair had resigned following poor midterm election results in the battleground state.
The resignation of the head of the Florida Democratic Party came after the disastrous result of midterm election for Democrats as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won the reelection.
DeSantis took down his opponents by a whopping 20 points. The GOP has also flipped two key counties and one of which was the once-Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade.
In a long letter addressed to the state’s executive committee members on Monday, Florida Democratic Chair Manny Diaz announced his resignation and complained about lack of resources and failure to present unified messaging.
He also lamented the lack of volunteers that would knock on doors during his campaign.
“Historical investments never arrived, and a broken, unsustainable system was exposed. Although we started our effort earlier than in prior cycles, it was still too late. We were not able to afford necessary staffing or opening the desired number of offices. Those we did open were too late for community buy-in.” Diaz wrote.
He also claimed that volunteers “have become nearly extinct in Florida since Obama’s last campaign in 2012.”
“We have plenty of social media activists, not roll-up-your-sleeves volunteers. We communicate virtually, not personally,” he added.
According to Diaz, the Florida Democratic Party has not received enough resources. He also argued that the national Democratic organization only invested 2% of the amount that they had contributed in 2018.
Furthermore, he also argued that the “national donors, even those based in Florida, don’t donate to the state party, and Republican statewide candidates outraised Democrats by more than $163 million.”
In an exclusive report published by Associated Press, it was revealed that the “crushing loss for Democrats has left them wondering how the state slipped away in a relatively short amount of time after President Barack Obama carried Florida twice. While the “red wave” did not come in the midterms nationally, the GOP delivered great results in Florida, building DeSantis’ star power as a possible 2024 White House contender.”
Following Diaz’ unexpected announcement, DeSantis questioned the latter’s resignation during a press conference in Bonita Springs on Tuesday.
“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 responded cheerfully.
“The Democrats’ troubles last year were particularly pronounced in Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county and home to 1.5 million Latinos of voting age. In a county that Obama won a decade ago by 24 percentage points, DeSantis in November defeated his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, by more than 11,” AP News added.
Despite Democrats’ disastrous midterm election results, Diaz contests the notion that Florida is now a red state.
“We have a history of extremely close elections. Floridians overwhelmingly adopted constitutional amendments that reflect our values,” he said.
