Florida GOP Chairman Evan Power says party isn’t slowing down after big local election flips

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power took a victory lap Friday regarding the GOP’s electoral performance in local elections on March 19.

On Florida’s Voice with Brendon Leslie, Power boasted how in Clearwater, for example, “there’s not a single Democrat who represents the city.”

There, Republicans flipped two seats Democrats were defending on the city council. In fact, both of those candidates were part of Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried’s so-called “Take Back Local” initiative – a name confusing to Power, as the prioritized candidates had been defending already blue seats.

Republicans also held onto the mayoral slot in Clearwater.

“I think it says a great deal about Republicans,” Power said.

The chairman agreed that the “biggest gut punch to the Democrats” was the GOP flipping the Delray Beach mayoral seat red.

“I think they’re gonna pay that price for four years,” Power said.

Back in Clearwater though, a GOP-backed initiative to transition the city’s elections to a runoff system emerged victorious as well. Power said this is important because “Democrats like to play games” by adding extra people to “divide the vote.”

“This way, we make sure we get conservative Republicans who are able to get into a runoff and win races,” Power said.

The chairman reacted to how the Florida Democratic Party chairwoman, Nikki Fried, has been reacting to the losses.

A point from Fried was that Democrats won a majority of races where a Democratic candidate was involved.

“Her spin is mind bending,” he said. “They targeted seven races […] They spent a lot of money on it […] We won three of those.”

“So, yeah, there’s some safe Democratic seats they held, but we won competitive races, and we flipped seats,” Power said. “They flipped none from Democrat to Republican – and they actually lost seats.”

Turnout was severely depressed during the elections for Democrats, primely because the presidential primary was canceled in favor of President Joe Biden, while the GOP presidential primary continued.

“It was a big win for us,” Power said.

Power became party chairman in early 2024.

“I guaranteed people in January: I would invest in the grassroots, and invest in turnout models,” Power said. “We did that […] I invested in some local races, and we were able to flip.”

Moving forward, Power vowed that the Florida GOP will be investing in vote-by-mail renewals and continue turnout prioritization for the upcoming big election in November.

Republicans have well-eclipsed a recently surpassed 850,000 voter registration lead as of March.