Florida Democrat changes affiliation, saying his old political party ‘is dead’

Florida State Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo announced Thursday he is leaving the Democratic Party, promptly stepping down from his position.

Pizzo, who had served as a member of the Florida Senate since 2018, said during a speech on the Senate floor that “the Democratic Party in Florida is dead.” He added that he had mailed in a voter registration form to switch his party affiliation to “no party affiliation.”

The Miami-area lawmaker claimed that Florida’s political system was similar to “the infighting, power struggles, corruption and decline of civic virtue that pervaded and eventually ushered in the fall of Rome.”

“So, too, are we players, or perhaps props, in the mess that is bottom partisanship,” Pizzo added during his speech. “Our constituents are craving practical leaders, not political hacks.”

“The party my dad volunteered for with JFK when he was 18 years old in 1960 is not the party today,” the senator went on to say, referring to the Democratic Party. “It craves and screams anarchy and then demands amnesty. That is not okay.”

Florida State Sen. Lori Berman was elected as the Florida Senate’s new minority leader shortly after Pizzo’s announcement, Florida Politics reported.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement Thursday in response to Pizzo’s announcement that the state party was “more united without 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 wrote in the statement. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”

Pizzo’s decision to leave the Democratic Party follows months of speculation that he may launch a gubernatorial bid in 2026 to succeed incumbent Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited from seeking reelection.

“Senator Pizzo didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the party left him,” Evan Power, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said in a statement Thursday. “Senator Pizzo is the third Florida Democrat to leave the party in the last few months.”

In December, two Florida state representatives, Hillary Cassel and Susan Valdés, announced they were switching their party affiliations to the GOP, increasing Republicans’ majority in the state House.

While Florida was a hotly-contested swing state within the last decade, President Donald Trump won the state in the past three presidential elections. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won the Sunshine State by less than two points securing 48.6% of the vote in Florida, compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 47.4%.

In 2020, Trump notched 51.2% of the vote in Florida, while former President Joe Biden secured 47.9%.

Trump notably widened his margins in Florida in the 2024 presidential election, receiving 56.1% of the vote to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 43%. The president carried Pizzo’s home county of Miami-Dade by 11 percentage points in 2024 after losing it by seven in 2020 — marking a swing of 18 points and making him the first Republican to win the majority-Hispanic county since 1988.

Pizzo did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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