Florida Senate Minority Leader Steps Down, Switches Registration to Independent — Declares Florida Democratic Party ‘Dead’

Photo via Jason Pizzo on Facebook.

Florida Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo sent shockwaves through the state capitol Thursday when he announced from the senate floor that not only was he stepping down from his leadership position, but also leaving the Florida Democratic Party — and he delivered a scathing review of the party on his way out.

Pizzo, a Democrat representing a South Florida coastal district mostly in Broward County with a small part of Miami-Dade, has long been viewed as more of a centrist Democrat and has split with his party on several recent bills. Still, his announcement Thursday took other Senate Democrats by surprise, according to a tweet by Gary Fineout, a veteran Florida political reporter with Politico.

In Pizzo’s remarks, he said that he had already mailed in his voter registration change form that day, switching from FDP to “NPA,” the Florida Division of Elections’ abbreviation for “no party affiliation,” or independent. He will remain in his state senate seat, to which he was re-elected in 2022 and is term-limited under state law from running again for another consecutive term.

The Tampa Bay Times published several quotes from Pizzo’s floor speech, in which he deemed his now-former party “dead”:

“Here’s the issue. The Democratic Party in Florida is dead,” Pizzo said. “There are good people that can resuscitate it. But they don’t want it to be me. That’s not convenient, that’s not cool.”

Pizzo said the Democratic Party today isn’t the party of his father. He said that the modern Democratic Party “craves and screams anarchy and then demands amnesty.”

“I think stripping myself of a title of a party designation allows me to run free and clear, clean and transparent and help many, many more,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo’s name has been embedded in the chatter surrounding the upcoming governor’s race in 2026, a contest that already has a fight brewing on the GOP side between U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — endorsed by President Donald Trump — and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who seeks to tap his wife Casey DeSantis as his successor.

Thursday afternoon, many Florida reporters and politicos reacted to Pizzo’s news by reflecting on its effect on his gubernatorial ambitions — and largely viewing this move as detrimental for him, especially in light of former U.S. Rep. David Jolly (R) switching parties to Democrat and announcing his own gubernatorial bid earlier in the day.

Florida Democrats reacted to Pizzo’s news with a mixture of surprise, laments, but mostly fury.

State Rep. Angie Nixon, who represents a Jacksonville district, tweeted a one-word all-caps farewell: “BYE!”

Reached for comment by Mediaite, Nixon confirmed her tweet was directed at Pizzo. “If he’s calling the Democratic Party dead,” she said, “it’s because he had his finger on the trigger. He’s been in leadership for the past four years talking down on many marginalized communities.”

“But we aren’t dead,” Nixon continued. “We are regrouping. And I look forward to us continuing to fight for working families and all Floridians. If you ask if I have direct words for him? BYE!”

State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat who is the House Minority Leader, told the Tallahassee Democrat that Democrats in the Florida Legislature “will be fine without [Pizzo],” because he “has been alienating himself from the Democratic Party for a long time now,” is “completely distracted by his ambition to be governor, and he has clearly lost the ability to lead the Senate Democratic Caucus.”

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat from Miami Gardens, had a similar take, telling the Times he disagreed with Pizzo’s characterization of FDP as “dead,” but acknowledging “there is a lot of work to do.”

FDP Chair Nikki Fried dropped perhaps the most scathing response to Pizzo’s announcement in a blistering statement provided to Mediaite:

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. 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.

Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum. I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself. The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.

Mediaite reached out to Pizzo for comment but did not receive a reply. If he does want to run for governor as an NPA candidate, he is well ahead of the June 8 deadline, but he is facing some brutal historical headwinds. The last notable independent candidate to attempt to run statewide in Florida was when Charlie Crist got annihilated by Marco Rubio in the 2010 Senate race.

For over a century, the Florida Governor’s Mansion has been occupied by either a Republican or Democrat. The most recent exception was Sidney Johnston Catts (Prohibition Party governor from 1917 to 1921), a colorful figure who was blind in one eye due to a childhood accident with a pair of scissors and was arrested in 1929 for his alleged role in a scheme to counterfeit $1,000,000 (his first trial was a mistrial and the second ended with an acquittal). Catts was preceded by two Republican and ten Democratic governors before him.

This article has been updated with additional information.