Florida GOP launches ‘Blue County Strategy Committee’ to ‘pick off’ Democrat-held seats

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – The Republican Party of Florida launched the “Blue County Strategy Committee,” which will be laser focused on “picking off” Democrat-held seats at every level of government.

This committee is focused on the five holdout counties from the 2022 election – Alachua, Broward, Gadsden, Leon and Orange – while also engaging other battleground counties that recently flipped, according to party Chairman Christian Ziegler.

“Governor DeSantis set the bar high – winning 62 of 67 counties in Florida – but our job is not done until we win the other five counties are red and there are no Democrats in office or considering running for office in the State of Florida,” Ziegler said.

“To accomplish that, I have launched the FloridaGOP Blue County Strategy Committee, which will be laser focused on holding every Democrat in office accountable and picking off Democrat-held seats at every level of government – local, state and federal,” Ziegler explained.

According to Ziegler, this committee will be headed up by Duval GOP Chairman Dean Black, who recently helped lead massive wins last November in battleground Duval County. 

“Dean Black is a respected force and will do an outstanding job ensuring that our counties have the training and resources necessary to win in Democrat areas,” Zeigler said.

“I am excited to chair this committee that Chairman Ziegler has put together excited to serve alongside Linda Trocin. I think it’s very visionary. All eyes are on the state of Florida,” Black said to Florida’s Voice.

“We are known as the free state of Florida, and our battleground cities, when we have flipped them successfully, and when we have examples of conservatively-led cities, our cities will be the example to the mismanaged Democrat cities throughout the country, in the same way that Florida is an example to other states,” Black continued.

The vice chairman of the committee will be Linda Trocine, a state committeewoman in Seminole.

“The Republican Party faces unique challenges in these counties. This committee will be tasked with findings ways to message, grow voter registration and deliver Republican Victory within those counties at the federal, state and local level,” Ziegler said.

Members from “battleground counties,” defined as counties which Gov. Ron DeSantis won by less than 60% (such as Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Seminole and St. Lucie) are strongly encouraged to join the committee to “help advise on how to best battle in and win in a blue county,” according to Ziegler.

Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, the current Duval GOP chair, was previously praised for his efforts to raise money and bring in volunteers during the 2022 election.

When asked what it takes to flip a county red, Black said it “requires hard work and great candidates, and complete commitment and focus from your county Republican Party, your county Republican executive committee.”

“I’m blessed to have a great board and a strong committee, and we have persevered. We have focused relentlessly on voter registration, and on carrying our message to the voters, and that’s begun to resonate,” Black continued.

Black said Duval is still a battleground county and they tend to seesaw back and forth.

“But, we’ve gotten the upper hand, we are in the middle of city elections now. We have a great candidate, Daniel Davis, and numerous other great candidates all down the ballot, and we’re looking forward to defeating Democrats and building that model, conservative city that America really needs to be able to look up to,” Black explained.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re going to stick to it until the mission is accomplished,” Black said.

Black previously celebrated the county flipping in favor of DeSantis. In 2018, DeSantis garnered 47.3% of the vote. Four years later, that number skyrocketed to 55%.

Earlier in the week, the Florida Republican Party launched the “Early Vote Operations Committee” with 15 county leaders that will be focused solely on early voting.