Last Monday, Florida Democrat Party Chair Manny Diaz announced his resignation, two months after Florida Democrats suffered historic losses in the 2022 Midterms. Diaz, a former Miami mayor who became the Democrat Party chair after the 2020 elections, submitted a lengthy resignation letter announcing that he was stepping down “effective immediately.”
In last November’s midterm elections, in addition to Republican Ron DeSantiswinninga20-pointlandslide reelection, all three state Cabinet seats went to the GOP, gained supermajorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, and picked up four congressional seats.
In his resignation letter, Diaz wrote that Democrats will not win elections in Florida if they “continue to rely on voter registration to drive turnout” or build field operations only around elections.
He said Democrats can’t expect “to get our voters out without engaging voters where they live” by listening to them and “earning their trust.” Ever since the Midterm wipeout, speculation has swirled about whether Diaz would remain as the head of the state party.
According to NBC News reporter Marc Caputo, when he reported after the Midterms that Diaz was stepping down, Diaz denied it.
But even in his rather lengthy resignation letter, Diaz appeared to deflect the blame for last year’s blow-out away from himself. In his Twitter thread on the resignation letter, Caputo points out that Diaz had harsh words for the “social media activists” who refused to roll up their sleeves and volunteer.
The Florida Democrat Party is expected to vote on new leaders when its executive and central committees meet this month in Maitland. In 2021, Republicans took the lead in registered voters in the state of Florida after years of the Democrats holding the advantage.
Former Democrat state lawmaker Sean Shaw said on Twitter that he doesn’t care what ideology the next party chair has so long as the chair can “register voters and run the actual operation” of the Florida Democrat Party “completely.”
