Jacob Ogles
Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power faces no declared opposition as he runs for a full term as Chair. But dozens of former Republican executive committee members may show up at the Orlando quarterly meeting to protest their recent expulsions.
The election is expected to take place around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando.
Power doesn’t seem worried about angry members of Florida Republican Assembly chapters around the state who are upset at ongoing friction with the state party.
“The Assemblies are in violation of Florida law,” Power said. “They have not existed for 10 years. You cannot be a member of an organization that is not in compliance with our rules. We are enforcing that, and we are protecting our brand. There is nothing personal.”
Power said state law forbids any group claiming to be affiliated with the Republican Party if it isn’t chartered with the state group. The Assembly chapters, he said, have refused to charter with the state party even when offered an opportunity.
But many members of Assembly chapters who were stripped of local Republican Executive Committee (REC) membership take it personally.
Many complained that ejections of members in December, right before local RECs elected officers, helped Power’s allies secure roles.
Additionally, Power has taken extreme actions in some counties, including suspending entire executive committees.
“Lee, Manatee, Sarasota, St. Johns, Osceola and Putnam Counties, Republican Executive Committees have had, held, or not held, corrupted elections, or been ‘dissolved’ in the last five months,” said Jeff Rawls, who remains listed as the Putnam County Republican Party Chair.
In the case of Putnam County, Rawls and other officers did not want to seat new committee members, citing problems with paperwork deemed fraudulent. Rawls said there was an attempt to populate the committee with Power allies. While Rawls is not a member of a Republican Assembly chapter, he considers those groups allies.
Rawls, who was asked not to attend the quarterly meeting this weekend and doesn’t plan to, said the divisiveness on who controls local committees has created problems now for years.
“This is completely out of control; hundreds of members have been removed at local levels, statewide, on the day of their local party elections, to make certain the people who will vote for Evan remain, or become new leadership who will vote for him this weekend,” Rawls said.
Power said the timing is only related to all REC members starting terms on Dec. 1. Most county parties hold elections shortly afterward.
In Sarasota County, members of the local Republican Assembly were booted right before Jack Brill was re-elected Chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota County. Of note, Brill won by a 148-54 vote landslide, so the ejections would not have made a difference in the final tally.
The Florida Republican Assembly plans to hold a protest outside the Rosen Plaza Hotel at 9 a.m. in Orlando in protest of Power “dividing the party.” Sympathetic groups like Venice-based Hollow 2A are encouraging members to show up and make their voice heard even though they have no vote in the state Chair election.
Michelle Pozzie, a former House candidate now involved with Hollow 2A, said in a Facebook video that Power is misreading the law regarding whether the Florida Republican Assembly can use the Republican name. She called the expulsion of members “an attempt to purge the MAGA membership within the party.”
Regardless, Power appears likely to win election to a full term. No candidate has actively run against him, though someone could be nominated at Saturday’s quarterly meeting.
Power feels the case for him to remain in power is clear: President-elect Donald Trump won Florida by 13 percentage points, a larger margin than any presidential candidate has tallied in the state since 1988. The party holds some responsibility for that, and for a growing advantage in voter registration over Democrats.
“We are at a 1.15-million voter advantage and we need to keep Florida winning,” Power said. “l took over in a lean time financially and raised over $200 million since I was Chairman.”
Power ran for Chair in 2022, but lost to Christian Ziegler. But the party fired Ziegler in January amid a sex scandal that paralyzed party fundraising for months. Power, who had won election as Vice Chair after losing the gavel to Ziegler, became Acting Chair and was elected by the state executive committee once Ziegler was formally removed.
