'There is no party': Senate Leader Jason Pizzo explains his surprise exit from the Democratic Party

Florida Democratic Party leaders were shocked on Thursday when Jason Pizzo, the minority party's leader in the Senate, announced that he was leaving the party and registering as an independent.

Pizzo represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade and assumed leadership of Senate Democrats after the 2024 election.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Pizzo said the party is “dead” and likened the current state of bipartisanship to “the fall of Rome.” In response, State Democratic Party leaders torched Pizzo. Florida DNC chair Nikki Fried said “his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years.” She also called his announcement a “final embarrassing temper tantrum.”

READ MORE: 'Where's Jared?': Democratic organizers frustrated by Moskowitz's absence

In his first interview since stepping down, Pizzo took a not-so-veiled shot back at Fried, who was beaten by Charlie Crist in the Democratic primary for the governor's office in 2022.

“We're headed at the state level by somebody who probably wasn't feeling confident that they'd win reelection in their own seat and said, 'You know what, if I'm gonna go out, I might as well go out with a bang. So let me run for governor.' That didn't end well,” he said.

Pizzo told WLRN his move to independent would help give a voice to Florida’s No-Party Affiliated voters and argued that the Legislature has been distracted away from tackling the issues that Floridians worry about.

"Anyone would have to argue and agree objectively [that] the last decade has been socially divisive, very loud distractions from actually resolving and addressing real needs of Floridians," he said.

WLRN's Carlton Gillespie spoke with Pizzo about the state of the Democratic Party in the state and what's next for him.

WLRN: You made waves this week with your announcement that you are no longer going to be a part of the Democratic Party, you've now changed your affiliation to independent. In your statement, you said the Florida Democratic Party is dead. Why is that?

PIZZO: If you look at it from a fundraising and financing perspective, the resources available, we took a precipitous drop after [former President Barack] Obama and then leading into subsequent cycles.

I think in 2018, the DNC raised or put in $49-$50 million and then it whittled down to $1 million. The last two cycles, I've actually been, I think, the largest private donor to state House, state Senate, and local races. And I've participated in artificially resuscitating what was really a terminal case.

Two other Democrats have switched their party affiliation to Republican this year. You went as an independent.  Why that change?

Numbers speak for themselves. There's nearly 3.7 [million] — I think it's 3,690,000 registered No-Party Affiliates. People are kidding themselves, politicians are kidding themselves, if they don't believe that there is a huge gaping hole in the center, and on the fringes of the left and the right that are just sort of thirsting for just rational and reasonable people.

The bulk of what we spent time with... anyone would have to argue and agree objectively over the last decade has been socially divisive, very loud distractions from actually resolving and addressing real needs of Floridians. I think people are just sort of just done with the loud noise from left and right, and would just like people to perhaps take the opportunity, the limited time that we have on a yearly basis here in Tallahassee — when we're all a captive audience — to perhaps address property insurance and affordability, and the environment, resiliency, transportation and education.

Not who's playing what sport, and 'Let's rename this the gulf of something' — it's just all nonsense. It's very loud.

And you think Democrats don't have the ability, at least as they're currently constructed, to reach those people in the center. 

The one sort of plea I made as incoming leader when I was elected by my colleagues, my caucus members was, “Don't take bait."

You know, certain things only get life because we have breathed some sort of oxygen into them. And it does two things. It's a huge opportunity cost lost by being distracted into following and going down rabbit holes of nonsense, from the DeSantis on woke and CRT and all of these things that Floridians don't really care about. They care about how am I gonna make my mortgage payment? Is my kid gonna go to a school that's safe on campus? Are they gonna get a decent education? Is there gonna be a job opportunity for them?

So my plea was don't take bait, and we do it all the time.

This has happened relatively quickly for you, you were tapped as the party's democratic leader after the 2024 elections, correct?

I think people knew that I was gonna be the leader for a while, but again, there's just things that people just don't want to hear about anymore, they don't wanna deal with anymore, and they don't have a voice for those people.

I have some empathy for — some sympathy for — my colleagues who have to do what the party tells them, that have to do what a lobbyist tells them, because they gave him $50,000 or $100,000 for their campaign. I don't suffer that.

At the same time, I know there's a large clutch of angry or shocked people at my decision. Most of them though, the loudest voices, are ones that are just pissed they can't hit me up for money this year and next year.

I fundraised over $5 million for the Senate Democratic Caucus in a declining condition and status of the Democratic Party as a whole. I was very honest in my assertion that I didn't think we were gonna pick up any seats, which I think is a win based on declining Democratic registrations compared to the delta of Republicans.

I was lambasted for that, but it turned out to be true, and on the house side, they lost members. I brought back every single Senate Democratic member in the 2024 election. No other entity can say that — certainly not the house.

Democrats now in response, have said a number of things. They say that you've broken party ranks, that the party hasn't left you, that you've left the party. They've called this a temper tantrum. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz made a comment that insinuated that you were quitting on the party. What's your response to all of what has been said about your decision?

There is no party, okay? If they wanna characterize it as quitting or leaving whatever — there is no party. There's a bunch of sort of disjointed ideas, no clear path of leadership whatsoever.

We're headed at the state level by somebody who probably wasn't feeling confident that they'd win reelection in their own seat and said, you know what, "If I'm gonna go out, I might as well go out with a bang. So let me run for governor." That didn't end well.

There's no party. There's a bunch of autonomous children in the room at this point that feel impossible to coalesce.

Listen, my own campaign consultant told me a few years ago that if I had designs on being leader of the Democratic caucus, forget about it, because I'm not Black, I'm not a woman, I'm not Hispanic. And in my designation speech I said I don't think identity politics is really helpful at this point.

Nobody had any problem taking a check. I think there's probably some people that are disgruntled about that now. I would say this, for those people who have these visceral sort of vehement reactions to me leaving, you should have said this last week if you felt this way about me the whole time.

Do you think that an independent can win the governor's race in Florida? 

I think people are done with worrying about party. I really do. I think people are done worrying about party, and I'm not really concerned about the slings and arrows from either side.

Here's the thing, my worst detractor is, whether it's on a Twitter [X] feed or a TV interview, or in a side conversation at a bar tonight — none of them will be able to say with a straight face that I've ever been bullied, that I've ever been bought, that I've ever been unduly influenced by anybody else, that I've ever lied, that I've never told the truth, that I've ever been involved in any kind of scandal or unethical behavior whatsoever.

That's it. And that's what's most important to me. The memory of my dad. And certainly to my two young sons. That's it. And the text messages and phone calls yesterday from family and friends on the Republican and the Democratic side are saying, "We don't care what party you are, you're just the best public servant we've ever known."

Will you now run for governor as an independent?

I'm gonna go run for the golf course and go play a couple holes.