Florida Dems facing financial woes, more than $868G in debt, report shows

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An end-of-the-year report filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) revealed that the federal arm of the Florida Democratic Party is more than $868,000 in debt following November's election season.

The reports of receipts and disbursement also showed that the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida had less than $61,000 in cash on hand at the time of filing on Sunday.

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Florida Democrats are no strangers to financing issues. 

In 2018, the Naples Daily News reported that the party would be questioned by the FEC over how it had failed to explain why a federal account used for federal campaigns ended up $159,333 in the red.

According to Florida Politics, the only time the federal entity had accumulated debts this high was last spring, when the party accepted $815,641 in Paycheck Protection Program loans. After facing criticism, the party returned the money to the federal government in July 2020.

An election worker, left, gives instructions for voting at an early voting site, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Politico reported last week that by the end of 2020 the party was so cash-strapped that it allowed health insurance for its employees to suddenly lapse amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It was a move that former leadership said was due to a delay in their check being paid, that newly appointed party Chair Manny A. Diaz said was "inhumane," and that led Democrats to call for both the resignations of top party officials and an audit of finances.

Diaz, the former mayor of Miami, promised at the beginning of the month that the insurance policy would be reinstated and that employees would have their bills paid for. 

He told Politico that he had been aware that the party's finances were a mess and that he'd been forced to make some "difficult decisions" to counter monetary woes, but that he "didn’t think things were going to [be] this bad."

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Nevertheless, morale was already down for staffers, following devastating electoral losses last year.

Although Democrats saw some returns for the billions they spent on the presidential and Senate races -- the Democratic National Committee reported to the FEC in January that it capped off the year with almost $39 million in the bank -- even former 2020 presidential candidate and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's more than $1.2 billion couldn't keep them competitive in the Sunshine State.

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Republicans bested now-President Joe Biden and big-spending Democrats by 3.3 percentage points in the state in November.

Members of both parties will look to Florida once more ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, during which Democrats have yet another chance to make gains in the GOP-controlled state House and oust prominent Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scolded CNN reporter Rosa Flores on Monday for implying that Florida has experienced issues distributing the coronavirus vaccine. (Diaz/Pool via REUTERS)

While challengers have been floated in the gubernatorial race -- like Daniel Uhlfelder, a lawyer known for his appearances at Florida beaches dressed as the Grim Reaper who has a political action committee (PAC) called "Remove Ron" -- DeSantis starts with $9 million in his own PAC, according to WCJB.

The future of the race for the Senate remains murky, though Republicans have a head start with more than $5.8 million cash on hand, according to the end-of-year FEC report for its federal entity.

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The Florida Democratic Party has not responded to Fox News' request for comment.