Renzo Downey
Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking partial credit for the resignation of Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz.
Diaz submitted his five-page resignation letter Monday evening, expressing frustrations about the party he felt were out of his control. The resignation came on the two-year anniversary of his election and two months after Florida Democrats had their worst election cycle in 40 years.
DeSantis took partial credit for Diaz’s resignation. After touting his record from his first term and saying Republicans had “taken the bull by the horns,” he noted Diaz’s departure.
“In terms of the resignation of the other party’s Chairman, there ain’t many … as many Democrats around as there used to be in the state of Florida, and we had something to do with that in November 2022,” DeSantis said.
Last week, when Wilton Simpson was sworn in as Agriculture Commissioner, it marked the first time since Reconstruction that Republicans have held all statewide offices.
“I think that part of it is I think they have a knee-jerk reaction to anything I do, and I think it’s put them in a corner where they’re basically playing to the woke choir, which is a very small minority of people,” DeSantis said. “They’re not addressing issues that really matter to folks, and so they really need a whole course correction and a big overhaul.”
Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried didn’t run for re-election, instead choosing to vie for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. She lost that race to former Gov. and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, who in turn lost to DeSantis by 19 points in the General Election. Simpson beat Democrat Naomi Blemur by nearly the same margin.
Although DeSantis won his first election in 2018 by less than half a percentage point, the 2022 election led some to frame Florida as a red state. Despite Florida Democrats’ resounding defeat in a Midterm cycle when the party outperformed expectations nationally, DeSantis predicts Democrats haven’t learned their lesson and won’t make their course correction.
“I don’t think they’re going to do it, because I think the incentives are to continue to do what they’re doing on an individual basis and so they can sort all that out,” DeSantis said. “I’m just happy that I was leading the charge to be able to win a historic victory in November.”
8 comments
Hypocrite
January 10, 2023 at 12:50 pm
“They’re not addressing issues that really matter to folks, and so they really need a whole course correction and a big overhaul.”
What a joke. It has been nothing but stunts from his administration since the beginning. Going after Disney? Banning library books? This is a pot and kettle situation. What a hypocrite.
Desantis 2024
January 10, 2023 at 4:00 pm
There have absolutely been stunts. But let’s not pretend that they haven’t accomplished anything legislatively. The governors response to Covid won him broad support from independents and moderate dems. His efforts at conservation are very popular. His budget will greatly improve infrastructure across the state. His school bills are very popular with parents across the state. Crime is down vs other states, and everybody has come to appreciate that after seeing the shitshow elsewhere. And most importantly, he isn’t changing the things that are already working. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The only area of concern is high homeowners insurance rates. And honestly, they seem to be trying to figure that out, and most people are willing to give the republicans the benefit of the doubt. Cost of living is another issue, but that’s a national crisis, not a state one. Honestly, desantis should run for president. He has kicked ass. And he isn’t popular due to charisma. It’s purely based on policy. That’s the kind of president we need after the disaster of the last two presidents.
SteveHC
January 11, 2023 at 11:33 am
Nonsense. 1) DeSantis takes “credit” for everything and anything regardless if he actually had anything at all to do with anything; next up – most likely creation of the universe.
2) His handling of the state’s ECONOMY during the worst of the pandemic was pretty good but his handling of the Covid medical crisis has been mostly TERRIBLE and to the derision of the WORLD’s medical and scientific community – of which his so-called “surgeon general” (more like “”auack-in-chief”) is a pariah among all of them.
3) “His” budget surplus is largely due to his grabbing as much excess federal funds for Florida as he can while at the same time turning around and biting the federal hands that are feeding him (ex: grabbing federal emergecy funds for Covid relief efforts, fed. economic relief and disaster funds going to the states,, etc.) and then touting how wonderful “his” budget surplus is (it being not much different than most any OTHER state’s is – *most* ALL of them are doing quite well economically incl. budget surpluses etc. for that very same reason).
4) His school bills and all of his other anti-democratic, anti-local/pro- centralized autocratic efforts and bills (he’d fit into Hong Kong’s current government quite nicely!) are liked only by his Republican base and about half of the NPA’s.
5) Crime is NOT “down [in Florida] vs other states” – in fact, we continue to be the “only in FloriDUH” laughing stock of most of the rest of the country in this particular regard.
6) “ And most importantly, he isn’t changing the things that are already working.” ??? What planet have you been living on, dude? He is now inFAMOUS for for CONSTANTLY doing just that!
(7) “ Cost of living is… a national crisis, not a state one.” Not a state one? Oh really! Under his watch Florida has gobe from being one of the most affordable places to live in the USA to one of the most EXPENSIVE – just 1 of MANY examples: Cape Coral one of the most unaffordably high rental markets in the country.
Always better to be REAL than to just spout political spin on everything.
tom palmer
January 10, 2023 at 2:26 pm
Diaz’s letter seems to agree with DeSantis on whether the Florida Democratic Party is focused properly.
Charlotte Greenbarg
January 11, 2023 at 7:48 am
“Last week, when Wilton Simpson was sworn in as Agriculture Commissioner, it marked the first time since Reconstruction that Republicans have held all statewide offices.” Rs took power after Ds who were slaveholders were defeated in the Civil War. Inconvenient history
tom palmer
January 12, 2023 at 4:53 pm
Those Ds are all Rs now.
ScienceBLVR
January 11, 2023 at 9:33 am
Oh, if only the Republicans were interested in the teaching of factual history, inconvenient or otherwise. CRT, however you define that aside, the party of Lincoln now, seems to stand for whitewashed fantasy of who actually built this country, and were forced to provide the labor to support white male landowners. The MAGA wing of the Republican party today continues to support white supremacists while denying institutional racism exists.
Even the extremely low percentage of Republican registered African Americans knows which party supports their agenda.. I think Trump got about 10% of the Black vote in 2020.
Boaz
January 11, 2023 at 4:25 pm
The favorite wine of Democrats in Florida is of the sour-grape vintage. So, they are content with losing elections locally and statewide while voting to nominate former Republicans instead of lifelong Democrats while drinking their favorite vintage of sour grapes. Perhaps, these new leftists don’t find lifelong Democrats authoritarian enough for their liking. Neoliberalism is as much an oxymoron as neoconservatism, such as Bush’s “big-government conservatism” or Clinton’s partnership between big business and big government (a page out of Mussolini’s economic playbook), essentially, economic neofascism or modern-day mercantilism.
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