Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, a prominent Miami Cuban, made a spectacular entry into the race in late November. | Brynn Anderson / AP Photo
Manny Diaz defeated two other presidential candidates.
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Democrats pinned their hopes on Manny Diaz on Saturday, trusting the former Miami mayor to revive the party’s fortunes after a disastrous election cycle in which President Donald Trump won the state and Democrats lost seats in Congress and in the legislative.
Diaz defeated two other presidential candidates during the Florida Democratic Party’s annual meeting, which was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our Democratic Party of Florida is at a crossroads,” said Diaz shortly before the vote. “While Democrats across the country win, we continue to lose ground. We continue to lose elections. “
Diaz, a prominent Cuban from Miami, made a spectacular entry into the race in late November, bringing in a handful of well-known employees and support ranging from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who spent $ 100 million in Florida during the 2020 election cycle and South Florida billionaire Jorge Pérez. He has since been endorsed by dozens of Democratic state politicians, including Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the party’s only state ruler.
His immediate task is to rebuild and raise money for the party as he heads for the crucial 2022 elections, where Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio, both Republicans, must be on the ballots. Trump’s solid victory in Florida has sparked speculation that the country’s third most populous state may no longer be America’s largest battleground, making it potentially difficult to convince donors with large funds to sign checks.
Diaz has described many of the moves he plans to make. In a December memo for Democratic Party officials, Diaz called for expanding party operations, including the creation of offices in central Florida, reinforcing postal voting and voter registration efforts, and improving data operations – everything it requires an influx of money. Several Democratic and operative candidates complained that the internal polls were inaccurate and showed several disputes more disputed than they actually were.
“In order to do these things and build a considerable amount of infrastructure necessary to get involved in the ideas above, we will need considerable resources,” said Diaz last month in his memo. “I will dedicate my time to leveraging my state and the entire country in relationships to build trust among donors and get them to buy what we are trying to accomplish here in Florida.”
Another major struggle hanging over the party is the next round of redistricting, when Florida can win another seat in Congress.
Diaz’s choice followed a deep and noisy assessment among Democrats of what went wrong in the 2020 election, as moderate and progressive factions of the party point the finger at each other. Republican successes were built on record attendance and a Democratic implosion in Miami-Dade County, one of the bluest parts of the state. Amid the consequences, Florida Democratic Party president Terrie Rizzo said she would not seek another term.
Just a day before the president’s vote on Saturday, three other candidates withdrew to support Cynthia Chestnut. The former state deputy and current president of the Democratic Party of Alachua County was the only black woman in the triple dispute and, during her brief remarks, she said it was time for the party to enter the 21st century and reflect Florida’s diverse constituency.
“I tell you as a daughter of Florida and as an African American woman, it is time for us to serve in command of the Democratic Party of Florida,” she said before the vote.
But the unification around Chestnut was also designed to consolidate opposition against Diaz, which the most liberal Democrats consider insufficiently loyal to the party, in part because he has donated money to Republicans in the past.
The last maneuver failed: Diaz managed to obtain the majority of the party’s votes in the first round.
Fried called for party unity during the conference.
“We cannot afford to fight among ourselves,” she said.
Diaz, 66, immigrated from Cuba to Florida and gained prominence during the 2000 drama surrounding Elián González, a Cuban boy found clinging to a raft off the coast of Florida.
The Clinton administration’s decision to repatriate González infuriated Cuban Americans. Diaz was there when federal agents took the child at gunpoint. Diaz left the party in protest, but was elected mayor of Miami the following year, serving until 2009. Later, he returned to the party and spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Diaz was seen as a political asset for the re-election campaign of the President Barack Obama who appeared in an ad.