Jason Pizzo says he’ll run for Florida governor as an independent

State Sen. Jason Pizzo, who’s talked about running for Florida governor for much of the past year, is ready to move beyond talk. He says he will run for the job next year.

The part that was unexpected, until just a few weeks ago, is the label that he’ll be running under. On April 24, he denounced and quit the Democratic Party and changed his registration to no party affiliation. So he’ll be running as a no party affiliation/independent candidate.

“Yes, I am,” Pizzo said in an interview that aired Sunday on WFOR-Ch.4’s “Facing South Florida.”

Pizzo said he is equipped to handle the challenge of what he predicted would be a coming state budget deficit. He said he would focus on issues that matter to people, not “the rhetoric that the Republicans want to push” and won’t offer the “visceral reaction that Democrats have to every little step or statement that the Republicans make.”

“We need somebody who can balance a checkbook, who understands finance, not just economic theory, who’s concerned about infrastructure and resiliency and the environment and education and all of these things that are at the top of mind for people that are just trying to keep a roof over their head, keep their kids clothed and educated,” Pizzo said.

“They want people that say, ‘Listen, how am I going to pay my taxes? How am I going to pay my mortgage or my rent? Is my environment, when I flush my toilet, will it work? When it rains, is it going to inundate me with flooding, and can I really even afford to live here with property insurance?’” he said.

Pizzo, a longtime Miami-Dade County resident, is now registered to vote in Broward County. In April, when he announced his departure from the Democratic Party during a speech from the floor of the state Senate, he alluded to his move when he said he sent his registration change to Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott.

The Elections Office confirmed Monday that he is a registered NPA in the county. Other details are exempt from public disclosure because of Pizzo’s past work prosecuting dangerous criminals as an assistant Miami-Dade County state attorney.

Financing

A statewide campaign in Florida, a large state with 10 media markets, is an expensive undertaking.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allied political committee spent $100 million on his 2022 reelection. His unsuccessful Democratic challenger Charlie Crist spent about $31 million. Four years earlier, DeSantis and his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum spent about $100 million total.

Pizzo is in a position to self fund a large part of a campaign if he chooses. His latest financial disclosure filed as a state senator showed he estimated his net worth as of Dec. 31, 2023, was $59.1 million.

When “Facing South Florida” host Jim DeFede asked Pizzo if he planned on self-financing his campaign and would decline political action committee or other outside money, Pizzo said this: “It’ll be private. I’ll raise it myself.”

In the past, Pizzo said, he has refused to accept campaign contributions from special interests seeking to influence his position on particular issues. “I’m going to be on the right position, that I think is the right position based on the merit of the position, and not based on a donation, and it sucks that we’re here, Jim, but that’s the reality,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo didn’t immediately return a request for comment on Monday.

Broward impact

Regardless of whether Pizzo wins or loses, his decision has an impact on Broward County.

Since the 2022 election, Pizzo’s district has been a mostly Broward district. He was elected last year to a four-year term, but under the state’s resign-to-run law he would have to resign the Senate seat to run for governor.

He would have to submit an irrevocable resignation at the end of May 2026, 10 days before candidates officially begin qualifying to get on the ballot. That would trigger an election in November 2026 to fill the remaining two years on Pizzo’s Senate term.

Former Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, who left office because of term limits last year, has already filed paperwork to run for the Pizzo-held Senate seat, and has said she’d run in 2026 or 2028, whenever the seat opens.

Another potential candidate is state Rep. Hillary Cassel, who represents much of the same territory that’s in the state Senate district. In December, after last year’s election, Cassel also quit the Democratic Party and registered as a Republican. She previously filed paperwork to run for reelection, but could switch.

Cassel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The 37th state Senate district takes in most of Broward east of Interstate 95 from Davie Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale north to the Palm Beach County line. South of Davie Boulevard it takes in nearly all of Broward east of Florida’s Turnpike. It includes the downtown Fort Lauderdale business district, wealthy enclaves along the coast, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.

It also includes a pocket of northeast Miami-Dade County, including Aventura.

Candidates emerging

It may seem early for candidates to declare their plans for the 2026 governor’s race, but it isn’t. Candidates often file formal paperwork, or at least signal their intentions, during the first half of the year before a major statewide election.

Republican Congressman Byron Donalds is already seeking his party’s nomination, and has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. Casey DeSantis, wife of the governor, also may run in the Republican primary. Term limits prevent Ron DeSantis from running again.

Former Congressman David Jolly, a former Republican and now a Democrat, has been traveling the state as he gears up for a run.

And another much talked about potential no party affiliation/independent candidate for governor, the trial lawyer John Morgan, whose firm is ubiquitous on TV ads and on billboards, is set to deliver a major speech Wednesday in Tallahassee.

Pizzo

Pizzo, 48, first elected to the Senate in 2018, is well known in political circles. A statewide poll conducted May 5-7 for the James Madison Institute, a conservative think tank, found Pizzo isn’t well known.

The poll found 35% said they weren’t familiar with him and 21% said they had no opinion. He was viewed favorably by 22% and unfavorably by 23%.

In a September 2024 interview, Pizzo described a scenario where “somebody like me” could get elected. “I think I would offer the best chance” for the Democrats, Pizzo said. “When you go down the checklist of boxes, the pros and cons, yeah, I would like my chances.”

He said at the time that the large number of no party affiliation voters — who make up more than a quarter of the state’s registered voters — are looking for something different than what Democrats have offered up in recent elections.

They would “love to have an alternative, would like to dip their toe into something else,” he said last year, a message he leaned into during his WFOR-Ch. 4 appearance. “NPAs decide who wins elections in this state.”

As recently as February, he said he might be the Democratic nominee for governor.

He spent much of his five months as Senate Democratic leader emphasizing a centrist message and seeking to distance the party from its progressive wing. It concluded with a late-April speech when he resigned his leadership position, declared the party “dead,” and became an NPA.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.