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Florida’s Democratic Party Chair is not running for re-election after a disastrous 2020 election. The state party lost seats in the legislature and congress. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us,  her re-election would have been problematic.

Democrats expected to go from seventeen to 19 seats in the state Senate Instead, they lost a coveted south Florida seat. Sen. Darryl Rouson is a Democrat from St. Petersburg and says 

“So it just means we have to work a little harder.”

It was worse in the House, where Democrats lost three incumbents and two targeted open seats. Orlando Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani says Dems need to change strategy.

“We’ll have to be more aggressive in committee, where we have more numbers. We’re going to have to ask tough questions” says Eskamani.

And then there were the two congressional seats in South Florida  that it lost.

Democrats have been calling for new leadership since the party took an 8 hundred thousand dollar Payroll Protection loan that became fodder for Republican commercials.

Now, party Chair Terri Rizzo, who has been in the job three years, sent this memo saying she would not seek re-election in January.

Eskamani knew the resignation was coming and adds “And I hope the executive director does the same.”

Eskamani was one of the first to speak out against the PPP loan and one of the first to call for new leadership.

“And this needs to set a new standard where we are going to focus on everyday people. The incoming leadership cannot be bought and sold by the consultant class” she says.

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and national committee woman Nikki Barnes have declared they are running. But Eskamani says others may jump in. She has questions.

“What’s their organizing model? How do they interpret power?”

In the end, Eskamani says the party must change how it operates…from relying heavily on consultants to being silenced by taking corporate cash, Other wise, it will be more of the same with a different face.  

Democrats lost legislative seats despite more than 15 million last minute dollars in out of state money used to help democratic legislative candidates.