Florida Democratic Party rejects Nikki Fried’s move, reinstates Palm Beach County party chair

Anthony Man, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·5 min read
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Mindy Koch is back as chair of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, reinstated after a committee of state party leaders defeated an attempt by Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried to remove her.

Unresolved are deep divisions within the county Democratic Party that prompted Fried’s push to remove Koch. Now, the county and state party chairs have to figure out how to work together to register and mobilize voters in the state’s third-largest county — with barely more than seven months until the November elections.

Fried called on Sunday night, Koch said, and the two are planning to meet in person later in the week. “She congratulated me on winning. And I told her I look forward to working with her. I asked for the meeting and she said absolutely.”

Koch said she could “absolutely” forge a working relationship with Fried.

Fried suspended Koch on March 4. Koch automatically returned to her position as county party chair on Sunday night when Fried didn’t get sufficient support to remove her from the Florida Democratic Party State Central Committee.

Fried appointed some members of the central committee, and she ran the meeting, making the outcome a repudiation. Her decisions to suspend two other county Democratic chairs were upheld, so Fried was two for three.

Removing Koch would have required support from two-thirds of the 122 members of the Democrats’ state central committee, which is made up of Democratic chairs from the state’s 28 congressional districts, elected officials, members appointed to the committee by Fried, and leaders of various caucuses in the party, such as senior, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ constituencies.

A majority of committee members — 67 — voted to uphold the suspension and remove Koch, but that was well short of the 82 votes Fried needed to prevail. There were 36 committee members who voted against removal.

The suspensions were considered one at a time in a marathon meeting on Sunday. Held via video conference, it went on far longer than participants expected, starting at 2:30 p.m. and lasting past 9 p.m. It took longer than an hour at the beginning to approve the agenda. One participant said Monday they had dinner reservations that had to be canceled and wasn’t even sure what their spouse ended up doing for dinner.

Five voting participants — including people who voted for and against removing Koch — described what happened during the meeting. They spoke on condition that their names not be used because they weren’t supposed to reveal what happened internally.

The committee first voted to remove Franklin County Democratic Chair Carol Barfield, then Miami-Dade County Democratic Chair Robert Dempster. Finally, the group turned to Palm Beach County, at about 8 p.m. Sunday.

The committee heard arguments for the suspension, Koch got time to answer questions, and members debated for and against her.

One participant urged Koch to avoid what was taking place and resign; Koch refused to do so. Participants said one of the final comments, in support of Koch, came from Terrie Rizzo, a former chair of both the state Democratic Party and the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.

Fried didn’t directly address the committee’s decision to overturn the Koch suspension in a statement following the central committee meeting.

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“When I was elected chair, I made a promise that we would never have another election cycle like 2022,” Fried said. “My hope has always been to get these local parties fully operational and back on track, and I trust that this process has helped them do that. We need our local parties to register voters, recruit candidates and raise money to ensure that we’re competitive in 2024 and beyond. Just like every other day, I will continue to work with all Florida Democrats to take back Florida and win elections in November.”

Koch said she would complete her term as county party chair. “We have Democrats we have to elect. That’s the job. That’s our one and only mission: electing Democrats,” she said.

She added that the three weeks during which she was suspended were difficult. “The stress, it was just, I don’t even have an adjective to describe it. It was unbelievable.”

The early-March letter from Fried to Koch notifying her of the suspension said the county party was “out of compliance with party rules.” It faulted her for, among other things, not adequately addressing conflicts and an “inability to find compromise within your membership have altogether created an environment that prohibits the (county party) from being compliant and successful.”

Fried, elected state party chair in February 2023, said when she issued the suspensions on March 4 that “the cost of inaction is too high,” adding that, “Candidates and elected officials rely on their local democratic parties to register voters, mobilize volunteers and engage donors to support their efforts — and they are impacted the most when they are not working effectively.”

Koch and her supporters said the suspension emanated from continuing divisions in the party. Koch was elected in the closest-possible contest in December 2022, receiving 160 votes in the contest for chair. The losing candidate, Maria Cole, received 159 votes.

Cole was at the time and still is the state Democratic committeewoman, which puts her in local party leadership. The party vice chair, who ran on Cole’s slate of candidates, was also elected by just one vote.

A county political party can provide vital functions, registering voters and reaching out and keeping them engaged. If it’s doing well at those functions, it benefits all the party’s candidates, freeing up the people on the ballot to use their time and resources to reach out to even more potential voters. If not, it can give the other side an advantage.

Koch said she hopes to quickly resume that work. She said a Friday night Democratic event is planned in West Palm Beach that she is billing as a “unity party.”

The ultimate outcome is unclear.

“What will happen and what could happen are two different things,” said one member of the central committee. “What should happen now is that people should realize that the greater good is more important, and we have to pull together, and there’s plenty of time for bickering on Nov. 6th” — the day after Election Day.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.