Issue #239: Jason Pizzo's Temper Tantrum

Elected as a progressive, Pizzo ran to the right and now has left the party

Oh boy, there is never a moment of peace for Democrats in Florida. On Thursday, April 24th, State Senate Jason Pizzo, the leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, announced he was stepping down as leader. It went further than that, with Pizzo announcing he was leaving the party and becoming an independent. In his remarks, he declared that the Democratic Party in Florida was “dead” and bemoaned that his ideas to revive it were not being listened to.

Despite being seen a standard progressive in his early Senate years, Pizzo moved further to the right as he looked to run for Governor. The 2025 legislative session has seen Pizzo attack left-wing issues and lawmakers and vote for Republican bills. Leading up to Thursday, there was already plenty of internal frustration with Pizzo. It was therefore, no real shock to see so many Democrats say “good don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” While I have long been a supporter of “big tent” politics, I was right there with the rest of them on telling him “bye!”

For those of you not in the weeds of Florida political dramas, this all may have flashed into the news with little context or clarity on “what the hell is going on?” As such, I wanted to take this time to lay out what happened, how it got to this point, and what the state of Florida Democrats is. Pizzo is right that the party is in a very weak position and I do not want to ignore that. However, like many, I take great issue with the childlike attitude the Senator has taken to this matter and his lame stunt on Thursday.

So with all that in mind, this article will tell you who Jason Pizzo is, what happened last week, and how Florida Democrats got to where they are. First thing is first, however, we must discuss Jason Pizzo’s early Senate years. To me, his declaration about the party moving too left for him is massively hypocritical.

The “True Democrat”

Jason Pizzo first burst onto the political scene in 2016. That year, Florida underwent a mid-decade redistricting process, the result of lawsuits that proved lawmakers had gerrymandered the lines. A long game of musical chairs took place, the result being the retirement of longtime Democrat Gwen Margolis and a multi-way battle for the open and heavily Democratic Senate District 38. This seat, with a mix of white, Black, and Hispanic voters, was centered in the northeast end of Miami-Dade County.

Before this race, Pizzo was a successful attorney in Miami Beach, notably working for the State Attorney’s office for Miami-Dade county. Many candidates ran for SD38, but for liberals the biggest issue not allowing State Representative Daphne Campbell to win. Campbell, who is Haitian, represented district with a large Caribbean population; a community often more socially conservative. In addition to a broadly cozy relationship with Republican officials and interest groups, Campbell would vote for several right-wing bills. Notable votes were to continue the ban on gay adoption, votes to restrict planned parenthood funding, and for requiring ultrasounds before an abortion.

With Campbell expected to do well with the Black community on the district’s west end, several candidates fought for the votes of the white and Hispanic voters on the east of the district. Miami Beach city commissioner Michael Gongora ran, as did former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns. In such a divided field, Campbell was able to secure victory with just 31% of the vote. Newcomer Pizzo came in 2nd with 24%, outpacing other elected officials.

With the nomination secured, Campbell had no trouble winning the steadily blue seat in November. However, she would have to face voters again just two years later. Instantly after her victory, it was expected she’d face a primary threat again. That was, unless she moved to the left on issues.

Campbell would not change, not that anyone expected her to, and in 2018 Pizzo announced he would primary the incumbent Senator. This time, no other candidates filed, allowing Pizzo to take Campbell on one-on-one. In debates, both clashed over her conservative issues positions. Pizzo took Campbell to task for her conservative votes, and argued he was the true Democrat in the race

“I have purely Democratic values” - Pizzo at a debate

In addition to social issues, Campbell drew ire for a long history of corrupt practices. She was widely seen as bought and paid for, always ready to take illicit cash and call in favors from special interest organizations. Pizzo received a great deal of support from lefty democratic groups, including from the LGBT organization Equality Florida.

The two faced off the August 2018 Democratic Primary. That race was actually open to all voters sense no candidate filed for November. That said, the votes cast saw 70% come from those with a Democratic registration and just 16% from a Republican registration. The result of the open primary was a Pizzo win by 8%.

Pizzo’s win came with a fairly divided racial vote. Looking at precinct data reveals some information to gleam.

• 80%+ Black precincts backed Campbell 65%-35%

• 70%+ White precincts backed Pizzo 69%-31%

Pizzo likely also took Hispanic voters and his 35% of the Black vote is a strong showing for a white Democrat against a politician who’s long represented the area. Pizzo did benefit from the open primary dropping the Black share of the vote from 44% to 34%. That said, Pizzo campaigned for all demographics, not relying on the non-Black vote. Pizzo would frequently tout SD38 as the most racially diverse district in the state - which it was.

A Liberal State Senator

Pizzo was thrust into the Senate in part for being a “real Democrat” - a counter to conservadem Campbell. In his first several years in the chamber, Pizzo did nothing to give left-wing groups pause for supporting him. Pizzo was largely with other Democratic senators on major issues his elevation was seen widely as great improvement from Campbell.

Not only did Pizzo embrace any type of conservative or moderate mantra, he if anything, leaned further to the left. In 2020, he was one of many Democratic lawmakers to back Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Omari Hardy over incumbent Democrat Al Jacquet. Granted this came as Jacquet, a conservative democrat, launched a serious of anti-gay attacks on Hardy for growing up in a same-sex household. Many members, left and center, backed Hardy, who defeated Jacquet that August.

In 2022, Pizzo went to back even more for a progressive challenger to an incumbent. The target this time State Rep James Bush III, likely the most conservative democrat in some time, was facing a primary from Ashley Gantt. Bush notably backed Republicans on abortion restrictions, LGBT restrictions, corporate tax cuts, and gun right expansions. Bush even voted for the infamous 2022 “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Pizzo pledged his support for Gantt the same time he pledged money to general election candidates. He eventually took his attacks on Bush one step further.

Pizzo attacked Bush when also commenting about Ron DeSantis’ struggle with support among Black voters. In his statement, he stated….

“The Governor seems to have issues with Black folks……But instead of leveraging his relationship with the Governor to help, he is the Governor’s little bitch.”

Bush was, of course, furious, and demanded Pizzo be reprimanded. No such reprimand came, and I wrote about the entire drama here, widely praising Pizzo for being CORRECT. Bush would go on to lose his primary to Gantt.

The 2022 redistricting process saw Southeast Florida lose a State Senate seat. As a result, much of Pizzo’s old seat was changed and he opted to run in a district covering a bit of Miami-Dade but largely based in Southeast Broward. Pizzo would go on to face no re-election challengers in his new Broward-based Senate District 37. He would use that freedom, and a large chunk of money already raised, to further aid the party. He pledged $500,000 in donations to vulnerable candidates and challengers.

This effort came as national Democratic forces made it clear they would NOT be getting involved in the 2022 Governor or Senate races in Florida. This left Florida Democrats in a bad position, and would ultimately lead to them being outspent by around 20 to 1 vs the DeSantis machine.

The 2022 midterms would be a disaster for Florida Democrats. I covered this issue extensively in this substack series. The biggest issue was turnout. The lack of national money, which was $50,000,000 in 2018 and around $5,000,000 in 2022, doomed GOTV drives and allowed DeSantis to spend over $100,000,000 to secure a landslide and prep for a 2024 Presidential run. Republican turnout was 14% higher than Democrats, creating a much redder electorate than the registration pool.

Amid this, Jason Pizzo advanced in Democratic leadership. In February of 2023, it was announced that Pizzo would lead Senate Democrats after the 2024 election. As such, he would be in charge of State Senate campaign efforts for the Presidential election.

Florida’s Move to the Right

It is no secret to anyone that Florida has gone from a classic swing state to a steadily Republican bastion. Shortly before the 2024 Presidential Election, I did a very detailed deep dive into what happened with Florida and why it “fell off” the swing state map. The full details are in that article, but I will give some key highlights below. The reasons are a combination of demographics and internal party politics. While many on twitter love to imagine the success in a state is 100% a result of what the state party does, that does not reflect the reality on the ground.

Some key issues for Florida Democrats are

• White Working Class voters swinging to the right across the nation, impacting Florida as well.

• Hispanic swings to to the right nationwide, something that heavily impacts Florida with a large Hispanic population base

• Suburban gains have been more muted for Florida Democrats, partially due to these being places with anti-tax conservative residents.

• Midwestern retirees, a more conservative group, are now making Florida their destination. This is seen in growth like The Villages. Meanwhile, the era of liberal Jewish retirees from the NYC area coming to Florida is largely passed.

In addition to key demographic issues, party structure matters have an an impact

• National Democrats wrote off Florida after 2020. Bare in mind the 2020 margin was 3%, but the cost of campaigns there made it “not worth it” for the DNC and its sister orgs like the DGA and DSCC.

• Within the state, Republicans have held a money lead for decades. After winning full control of government in 1998, the GOP was able to build reliable donor networks with businesses. There is no election in Florida today where the GOP cannot outspend Democrats easily. This allows more GOP wins, which further leads to less money to Democrats, which leads to more GOP wins, and the negative cycle repeats

• While the Democratic Party has had many moments of disfunction, which I have written about and covered plenty, this is exasperated by the negative cycle described above. Chairs get elected, elections go bad, and they are ousted. A brain drain of Democratic consultants becomes a common issue.

• A war between centrist and lefty Democrats is constant, but is also overblown. Republicans dominated the narrative in Florida and the internal Democratic fight over ideology is not covered much.

The 2020 election’s aftermath led to a rapid decline for Florida Democrats. Again much of this was driven by national groups not involving themselves in 2022. All of this led to a very pessimistic view of 2024 for Florida Democrats. I myself never once predicted Florida could go to Biden or Harris. From day one my coverage and focus was on regional races, but also seeing how broad trends would happen in the state. It was in this environment that Pizzo had to lead the Senate campaigns.

Shifting Tone Heading to 2024

So as I have laid out, Pizzo up until recently was your classic liberal democrat. There was nothing major that predicted a shift to the right. After the 2020 election, one line of Pizzo’s did make the media rounds. The context was party debates about the failure to counter GOP messaging, especially in the Hispanic community. Spend any time in Miami-Dade, and the constant line of attack was that Democrats were socialists. Pizzo was quoted “I’m not a fucking socialist.”

This quote, however, while partially about a debate between the center and left within the Democratic Party, was ultimately more about effective messaging counters. Pizzo was on record at this time warning that the party could not be perceived as too far left. This is something that myself, a pretty solid leftist, doesn’t disagree with. Its a balancing act. Pizzo here made this statement, but then remember that two years later he was backing and funding a primary challenger to James Bush III. In addition, when he was pledging financial support to a litany of Democrats in 2022, firebrand leftist State Rep Anna Eskamani was on the list of those he was backing.

While Pizzo did begin to increase a drumbeat that Democrats should be catering to bread and butter issues for voters, he was not attacking anyone publicly - though hinted at frustration with “loud voices.” That said, Pizzo remained a firm progressive voice against the right-wing culture issues of the legislature.

“While there were glimpses of nonpartisanship on important issues this Session — we need to let the light of transparency shine through, ditch the senseless attacks on the vulnerable, and reestablish the autonomy of the Legislature.

While Pizzo’s public posture was one of a standard progressive, there was internal grumbling about the Senator. Pizzo’s public comments that the right should stop focusing on cultural issues apparently was matched by private comments to left wing activists criticizing them for their focus on different issues. Pizzo also began to increase his scrutiny and challenging of progressive organizations that came to speak at legislative committees in the time around 2023 to 2024.

It was also in this time that Pizzo got flack for a handful of right-wing votes - namely bills to remove jury unanimity for the death penalty and a vote to repeal local citizen review boards.

Specific issues aside, however, the bigger issue began to emerge that Pizzo saw himself running statewide in the future and he wanted the party to reflect his strategy. As Florida moved more firmly to the right, being a outspoken progressive made winning statewide much harder. Pizzo wanted to avoid cultural issues, ignoring the reality that these were something right-wing forces often bring to the forefront.

As he got more pushback internally, he grew more agitated with people “not listening to him.” The brash personality I have already highlighted was further tilting toward left-wing folks. Pizzo always had fans and detractors, with many former lawmakers arguing he was always “a dick” behind the scenes. He was constantly described as “arrogant” and that “he knew what was best.”

We would soon see this side of Pizzo more publicly.

The 2024 Elections

As stated before, Pizzo’s future role as Senate Democratic leader meant that he was to lead efforts for the 2024 Elections. The list of State Senate seats up was not a good one for Democrats. Most of the GOP-held swing seats were not up until 2026 and only Senate 3, a Biden +3 seat held by Republican Cory Simon, was seen as the best chance to flip a district.

One issue emerged with a State Senate seat in Orlando and it reflecting a growing rift between Pizzo and the Democratic base. Senate District 17, a deep blue seat, had no incumbent running and the early frontrunner was former State Rep Carlos Guillermo Smith. Originally elected in 2014, Smith had lost re-election in the 2022 red wave. An outspoken progressive and one of the first openly gay state house members, Smith was widely liked by the Democratic faithful. However, word was Pizzo dislike Smith greatly, not wanting outspoken progressives in the caucus he was going to lead. Pizzo wanted to set the tone for the caucus. Wild rumors about if Pizzo was openly recruiting a primary to Smith floated for months - and it is widely confirmed he encouraged a candidate to run. However, Pizzo still kept a distance and Smith would go on to win the seat unopposed in the primary.

Pizzo, meanwhile, had his own re-election to deal with. His Dade-Broward district had backed Joe Biden by 13 points but had then backed Ron DeSantis narrowly in 2022. Pizzo did worry about the district, as it was home to a large Jewish population and the Gaza War was a massive issue in the district. Pizzo, took very hardline stances on the Israel-Gaza War. Ceasefire proposals were often deemed anti-Semitic, even though Pizzo said critiquing Israel was ok, it seemed like no critique was actually ok. I’ve discussed my views on the war plenty and have stated firmly that 10/7 was a monstrous atrocity AND that Gaza war that followed is textbook ethnic cleansing.

Pizzo’s district, in particular, is home to many Orthodox and otherwise conservative-leaning Jewish communities. These voters did indeed swing to the right, and Pizzo’s district would back Trump by 1.3%. Luckily for Pizzo, however, his Republican opponent was a perennial candidate Imtiaz Mohammad; a man who once ran several times as a Democrat. Mohammad became a Republican in 2022, attacking Democrats for being pro-LGBT, and would argue Trump could bring about peace in GAZA. He raised $5,000 and had no GOP help. Pizzo defeated him by 16%.

Pizzo outperformed Harris across the district, with his biggest over-performances being in the more heavily Jewish communities. Pizzo, hence, is the lone Democratic Senator to sit in a Trump district. This strong over-performance, the biggest of the cycle, further boosted Pizzo’s credentials for statewide office. However, I have maintained his win is not as impressive considering his non-serious opponent.

With the election over, Pizzo’s public posture would flip dramatically to the right.

Pizzo Swings to the Right

Almost immediately after the 2024 Elections concluded, the Pizzo seen in public became a very different politician. The Senator still had his eye on a statewide run, namely wanting to run for Governor in 2026. As such, Pizzo clearly decided the best way to secure a shot in the general was to go heavy against the left. Plenty can be said for what is true views are, as I’ve already discussed he had a different take behind the scenes for many years. However, what is clear is that Public Pizzo took a shift to the right.

In an early December interview, Pizzo made it clear that he felt the national Democratic Party being “too left” was the big problem. He said the party needed to stop talking about culture war issue as much.

“I don't want, nor is it necessary, nor is it important, nor is it pressing to talk about transgender high school athletes, CRT, woke AP African, all this book banning, all this crap, it's all allowed deflection and distraction from actually rolling up our sleeves and taking care of the issues that are most important to families,”

As I have noted before, the right-wing are the side that bring these issues up. Democrats getting involved is them defending those being attacked. Sate Rep Anna Eskamani pushed back on this in the same article

“It’s not the Left that's talking about those issues, it's the Right. So, and I think that's a really important distinction here every issue he just named, it's not Democrats who are filing a bill, it's Republicans who are filing a bill to distract from real issues,”

Pizzo and Eskamani also went back and forth over issues like rent control, something Pizzo called “socialism.” The December interview and article laid out a key fight to come in Florida - the possibility that both Pizzo and Eskamani would run for Governor. In such a primary clash, it would clearly be Pizzo on the moderate end while Eskamani would be the progressive. Since then, however, Eskamani has announced a plan to run for Orlando Mayor.

Regardless of who he would face, it was clear, more than ever, Pizzo was moving to the right in a more outspoken way. In his remarks as the new Senate leader, Pizzo continued attacking left-wing “identity politics” issues

“If you need assurance that this (Democratic) caucus is not playing identity politics, for the very first time, there’s one white male in the caucus since Reconstruction and they’ve elected me to be the leader. We’re not playing identity politics,” he said. “We’re going to be more practical, perhaps less progressive.”

The whole white male thing was weird, and generated a good deal of confused faces from elected officials and activists. He acted like the Senate had not had a white male leader just a few years back. The “less progressive” line got far more pushback from fellow Democratic Senators. The newly-elected Senator, Barbara Sharief, stated about Pizzo’s declaration about being less progressive

“No, actually, I don’t. I think that we need to allow for more progressive thought in the Democratic Party, and I think that different thoughts and opinions help to move us further ahead,”

This is actually a really notable comment from Sharief, someone who, while broadly progressive, has plenty of GOP ties and tendencies. She won a contentious Democratic primary in 2024 against a candidate viewed as more progressive.

Pizzo spent much of November and December blaming State House democrats for being too progressive and said the Harris campaign did not convince him they’d be better at governing. Pizzo’s manta was not moderation, it was “I’m a Democrat but I’m also embarrassed about it.” His comments angered the very progressives that had aided his 2018 win and worked with him in 2020 and 2022. Many saw it as a clear move to angle for a governor run.

Pizzo insisted that American voters were not in favor of the left-wing postures of Democrats, and that is why they lost. I have no time here to counter that, but I wrote 5,000 words in November explaining why Democrats do NOT need to move to the right on social issues. Economics is what killed Democrats in 2024, with 70% of Americans unhappy with their personal pocketbook situation. Pizzo does NOT understand the actual electorate. Beating a perennial candidate does not make him an expert.

Many have speculated what Pizzo’s true ideology was. Talking with folks, the sense in the capital is that Pizzo was actually always a much more moderate to conservative individual. The belief that he faked being a progressive to advance in 2016 to 2018 is held by many at this point. Once being a progressive no longer suited Pizzo’s career advancement, he pivoted, and pivoted hard.

While I cannot read his mind, that theory would not shock me if it turned out to be true. One thing was for sure, this was not the same Pizzo as 2018.

The 2025 Session - Further Attacks

As 2025 got underway, Pizzo continued to posture himself as a moderate willing to attack his party and the left. He discussed feeling without a party at times, even though he insisted he did not plan to run for Governor as an independent. In January he took both parties to task, but again laid in on the left.

“This is traditionally the party of democratic values, of working middle-class people that try to provide equal opportunity but not equal outcomes. So, our party, folks sort of abuse it to the far left. The right has abused it. They’ve been in power for 30 years, and no one’s life is really that much better.”

The early part of 2025 was dominated by the feud between Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature, something I discussed here. At the first the biggest drama was over immigration, with the GOP legislature and DeSantis disagreeing on a bill. Pizzo offered Democrats as a compromise arm to aid the legislature in passing a bill. This only further alienated him from progressives. Pizzo would lash out and say his detractors favored amnesty.

Pizzo would continue to ramp up attacks on the Democratic Party and left as the spring went on. An interview with Influence Magazine saw Pizzo continue to lean in the manta of an independent “democrat.” Pizzo framed himself as a constant moderate, from a moderate to conservative family of developers. The interview glossed over Pizzo’s progressive background, likely giving more credence to the idea his progressive posture in the past was fake.

In March, Pizzo went on a tirade in a Senate committee meeting. The meeting was about a bill to allow colleges students to have guns on college campuses. In the push to get it passed, Senator Randy Fine argued that the college campus protests over GAZA showed weapons were needed (namely the horrible anti-Semitic actions that blocked Jewish students and harassed them). All Democrats and several Republicans rejected this argument and the bill failed. Pizzo then decided to attack his fellow Democrats for “supposedly” dismissing the issue of anti-Semitism on campuses. In an INSANE tirade (video here at 1 hour 40 minute mark) - Pizzo insisted gay, Black, and other minority communities should be willing to understand Fine’s position. Pizzo framed it as if the other democrats were dismissing Jewish fears on the campuses. NO ONE was dismissing any fears and Pizzo acted like an unhinged lunatic live on the Florida channel.

The outburst led to a fury from Democrats privately and publicly. Carlos Smith, one of the people in committee that Pizzo attacked, made it clear he agreed about the anti-Semitism issue and was not dismissing it. Michelle Rayner, an LGBT state house member running for State Senate, took Pizzo to task on twitter. I can tell you I was privately furious, telling a colleague that Pizzo better keep the LGBT community “out of his fucking mouth.” My own liking of Pizzo was rapidly collapsing, as was likely the case for many of his once-supporters.

The outbursts from Pizzo only continued. He’d find any reason to attack the left and Democrats. One instance emerged over something as mundane as water rights. The bill would end surcharging that the city of Miami Gardens was having to pay for water. Miami Gardens is the largest Black city in Florida. The bill passed the Senate 36-2, with Pizzo being one of the NO votes. Pizzo said the bill violated the state constitution (I don’t know or care) The only reason I am talking about this is that in voting, Pizzo made this comment.

“So, here’s the deal. I follow the law. I read the plain reading of the law, and if anybody’s feelings are hurt and think I’m a racist for my position, suck it.”

Look I’m not even going to pretend I know about this water and city issue, nor do I presume Pizzo is racist for his vote to not side with Miami Gardens. Likewise it has NEVER been made clear by Pizzo who claimed he was racist. But all he wanted to do was complain publicly, claim he was called a racist, and that he didn’t care. He was being a child.

Pizzo’s time in the 2025 legislative session also saw him float to the right on several bills. One notable bill was the “Gulf of America” bill - which matches state policy with Trump’s asinine renaming of the GULF OF MEXICO. Pizzo, of course, voted with the GOP to support the move.

On the same day he’d announce he was leaving the party, Pizzo agreed to help revive a bill that had been defeated in the Senate the day before. The bill, which would allow developers to expand into rural areas of counties - something heavily opposed by environmentalists - saw all Democrats and a handful of Republicans vote to kill. Pizzo, as a member of the winning side of the vote, then agreed to revive the bill, giving the GOP another chance to pass it. This INFURIATED Democrats and environmentalist groups. Why was Pizzo helping GOP leadership with a pro-developer bill?

As I have talked with folks, it seems clear Pizzo’s tenure as Senate leader was reaching a breaking point. Pizzo was not listening to his rank and file members and demanding everyone go along with his vision. While he still had allies, it was entirely possible he was at risk of being outed as leader. Ideology aside, who could blame them? It was not just Pizzo voting a couple ways, it was the public attacks on the party and issue groups broadly. That is not how a leader should be acting.

Then came the speech.

Pizzo Bolts the Party

Things all came to head on the afternoon of April 24th. As Pizzo rose to speak in the Senate floor, he announced he was leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent. In his speech, he revealed his true motivation with one line

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

The line “The Democratic Party in Florida is dead” is what got all the headlines and was the title of most articles. I take issue with that, even as I’ve discussed here the problems Florida Democrats have. It comes just weeks after Democrats posted massive swings in two special elections for deep red seats in Florida. What really stood out for me in Pizzo’s speech was the “But they don’t want it to be me. That’s not convenient. It’s not cool” line. That, to me, said it all. Pizzo was mad his vision for how to lead the party and run for Governor was not listened to. Therefor he rage quit.

Most Democratic officials and leaders told Pizzo to buzz off. Chairwoman Nikkie Fried’s statement perfectly summed up the issue with Pizzo

“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.

Several lawmakers raked Pizzo over the coals, while several Democratic senators maintained more tepid responses. This likely stemmed from a desire to keep Pizzo from drifting even further to the right through his term. We will see how that goes. Senate Democrats wasted no time. That same say they elected Lori Berman as the new caucus leader - who declared that the party was “alive and kicking.”

In subsequent interviews, Pizzo has only further ratchet up attacks. He referred to legislative Democrats as a “bunch of autonomous children in the room at this point that feel impossible to coalesce.” Again this all points to Pizzo desiring control and angry he could not get it. The first thing that came to mind for me, and I’m not joking, is a scene from a Marvel movie.

This isn’t about Pizzo being some Joe Manchin style conservative who was chased out of the party. Its about a rich-kid Senator being annoyed he won’t be given the keys to the kingdom.

What is Pizzo’s Plan

It was clear for a long time that Pizzo wanted to run for Governor, or maybe Attorney General. However, to me the ultimate thing that killed this was his realization he could not win a Democratic Primary. His right-wing flip was too far and he was destined to get crushed in a primary.

On that note, one issue that is widely believed at influencing Pizzo’s decision to go NPA was the entry of David Jolly into the party. Jolly was a Republican Congressman in St Peterburg until 2016, when he lost to Charlie Crist. An early anti-Trump Republican, Jolly announced he was becoming a Democrat and intended to seek to the nomination for governor. Now I question that Jolly can win a primary, but the implication for Pizzo was clear. Jolly would now take many moderate votes from him, making a primary win even less likely. That Jolly announcement, btw, happened THE MORNING OF THE SAME DAY PIZZO MADE HIS SWITCH. It is like the second he realized he was screwed, he quit.

It has also been noted that Pizzo’s NPA registration change gives him enough time to possibly run for Governor as an independent next year. It is already being speculated that he may join with former Republican State Senator Jeff Brandes in such a ticket. Brandes and Pizzo are close friends and Brandes, like Pizzo, has alienated himself from his main party. Brandes wants statewide office, but knows he cannot win a GOP primary. The two could definitely forge a ticket for Governor

All that said, I don’t know why anyone would trust Pizzo in any office. As this longgggg article has shown, the man has fluctuated across ideologies, clearly lying about one side or the other. He has proven to be a hothead, controlling, and unwilling to take critique. Pizzo will continue to think he knows best. The reality is… he’s a fucking child.