In battleground Miami-Dade County, Democrats battle each other

MIAMI — In a rare election year shake-up, Florida Democrats voted Sunday to permanently remove Miami-Dade County Democratic Party chair Robert Dempster from his post, after state party chair Nikki Fried suspended him earlier this month.

In a meeting stretching nearly seven hours, Dempster and Franklin County Chair Carol Barfield were removed from their elected positions by members of the Florida Democratic Party State Central Committee. Palm Beach County party chair Mindy Koch, also suspended by Fried, was reinstated despite a 67-36 vote in favor of her removal, which did not meet the required two-thirds threshold. The Franklin and Miami-Dade Democratic committees must elect new permanent chairs within the next 45 days.

“When I was elected chair, I made a promise that we would never have another election cycle like 2022,” Fried said in a statement following the vote. “We need our local parties to register voters, recruit candidates and raise money to ensure that we’re competitive in 2024 and beyond.”

Dempster declined to comment on his removal and instead directed inquiries to Thomas Kennedy, a former Florida Democratic National Committee member, who called the vote “an embarrassing waste of time” and said that the party’s efforts “would be better spent talking to voters like me who switched to [no party affiliation].” Kennedy recently left the Democratic Party in protest of President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

It’s the latest episode of turmoil and setback in several tough years for Miami-Dade Democrats. After improving their performance there throughout the Obama years, Biden’s vote share in Miami-Dade crashed 10 percentage points in 2020, a big reason why Trump won the state somewhat