Sen. Bill Nelson, who never lost a general election in more than 40 years of holding various elected offices in Florida, was supposed to win again. But it didn’t happen and his loss is one of many being laid at the feet of the Florida Democratic Party's chairwoman. | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Florida Florida Democrats to grill party chair after huge losses ‘We’re all frustrated. We’ve been frustrated for 2 years,’ said a top Democratic official.

After suffering huge losses in November, Florida’s Democratic National Committee members will meet behind closed doors Saturday with state party chair Terrie Rizzo to determine what went wrong — and what must be fixed in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump in the nation’s biggest battleground state.

The meeting, where DNC members say they’ll air “gripes” and “frustrations,” could come at a cost to Rizzo: there’s talk among some of proposing a non-binding, no-confidence vote in her after the party lost five of six statewide races, including contests for governor and U.S. Senate, in what was a “blue wave” year elsewhere in the nation.


“We’re coming off of a very tough loss and people want confidence that something’s being learned from this prior cycle and that Terrie’s going to address it immediately,” said Nikki Barnes, a DNC member from rural Wakulla County, south of Florida’s capital. “But a lot of people just want Terrie gone now.”

Asked who those “people” are, Barnes said “the grassroots” but also acknowledged that she personally believed Rizzo should step down or, at least, the state party’s executive director, Juan Peñalosa, should.

Florida Playbook newsletter Our must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the Sunshine State. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Rizzo, answering for herself and Peñalosa in a written statement, said the Saturday meeting — which she called — was itself evidence of how she’s fixing the party and moving it forward.

“Florida Democrats are not backing down. We are using 2019 to learn from our defeats and our victories,” Rizzo said. “We are expanding our staff, implementing ambitious plans for voter registration, building a year-round voter protection department, investing more money into our county parties and caucuses, and most importantly, doing the hard work of listening to both supporters and detractors.”

If Rizzo and Peñalosa’s presentation leaves the state’s 14 DNC members wanting, Barnes said, she’d consider making a motion calling on her to step down as chair. Three other DNC members planning to attend Saturday’s meeting in Delray Beach, in Rizzo’s home of Palm Beach County, expressed more confidence in the chair. But another anonymously told POLITICO that it was “probably time for her to go.”

Adding to the party’s woes: racial conflict within the party organization. Earlier this month, the state Democratic Party’s treasurer, Francesca Menes, quit and claimed that Rizzo talked down to her and other black Democrats.

"As a state officer of the Florida Democratic Party, there was no real respect towards me or the 2 other Black State Officers,” Menes, whose resignation was first reported by Miami New Times, wrote in a Facebook post. “We are always kept out of the loop, having to demand information only to get dismissed.”

Florida, the nation’s third-most populous state, has long been considered a must-win for Republicans who need its 29 Electoral College votes to counteract all-but-certain Democratic wins in largest-in-the-nation California (55 voters) and fourth-largest New York (29). Florida also has a special place in Trump’s heart: it’s his second home and, during campaign trail stump speeches, he enjoys recounting how the news channels announced he won Florida on Election Night.

Recognizing that Florida is an essential state for Trump, state Democrats expect more national money to flow into the state in 2020 to make it a roadblock to deny him a second term.

The Nov. 6 losses for the Florida Democratic Party were not as catastrophic as in past recent midterms, however. For the first time ever, statewide races — governor, U.S. Senate and agriculture commissioner — went to recount, a sign of better Democratic turnout in a midterm election, which Republicans typically won by larger margins.

The party also did well on a local or regional basis by flipping control of three urban county commissions. And it picked up a net of two U.S. House seats, five state House seats and one state Senate seat. But the GOP still controls both state legislative chambers, has a majority of the congressional delegation and, for the first time since Reconstruction, will hold both U.S. Senate seats.

The top-of-the-ticket wins by Republicans came as a shock even to a Democratic Party that had become accustomed to dysfunction and defeat in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 2 percentage points.

This election was supposed to be different. Strong Democratic tail winds were supposed to give Florida its first Democratic governor in 20 years and its first African-American governor ever, Andrew Gillum. Sen. Bill Nelson, who never lost a general election in more than 40 years of holding various elected office, was supposed to win again.

But it didn’t happen.

Though Democratic turnout overall — and turnout among its base of younger, non-white and poorer voters — appeared higher than ever, GOP and elderly white turnout was even higher. For all Democrats’ hopes that a Boricua wave of Hurricane Maria survivors would swamp the polls, Puerto Ricans and Democratic-leaning non-Cuban Hispanic voters had relatively poor turnout compared to Republican-leaning Cuban-Americans. African-Americans, however, flocked to vote in record numbers because Gillum was on the ticket.

But amid all the focus on non-white voters, white voters continued to consolidate around the Republican Party. Whites are more than 63 percent of the registered voters but their share of vote was at least 70 percent in November.

The Florida Democratic Party, in concert with the Gillum campaign and other groups, at one point decided to drop its focus on white and rural voters, a mistake that even Rizzo loyalists say might have cost Gillum and Nelson. Another error: the failure to organize early and grow the voter rolls by registering more people who fit the profile of a Democratic voter — a key to President Obama’s back-to-back wins in Florida.

Heading into 2020, the Florida Democratic Party said it’s starting its outreach and voter registration efforts early — this spring. And, party officials say, they’re continuing to focus on municipal elections to help build a bench of future state candidates.

The state is still compiling all the Nov. 6 election data, so there still isn’t a complete picture of the electorate. But before the information becomes available, Rizzo decided to hold the Saturday meeting with DNC members to give them the update on the last election and lessons learned.

“We’re all frustrated. We’ve been frustrated for 2 years,” said John Ramos, a DNC member from Rizzo’s home county. Ramos doesn’t think the party should get rid of her, though.

“Is it on the agenda to have Terrie step down? The answer is no. Is it on the agenda to reflect on, for lack of a better word, issues? Yes,” he said.

Ramos said he wanted to know more about Hispanic outreach — an issue that has gained steam and has led some Democrats to whisper about replacing Rizzo with state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who became eligible to run for the Florida Democratic Party chair after she became a state committeewoman from Miami, a position vacated when Menes, the treasurer, quit.

Another Florida DNC member, Ken Evans, said he’s not interested in discussing a replacement for Rizzo and appreciates the attempt to convene a meeting.

“What Terrie is doing for us is more of a courtesy, to sit down and explain things to us,” Evans said. “It really isn’t supposed to be a gripe session. But I’m afraid it’s going to happen.”

