Palm Beach County Democratic Party chaos continues as party chair Mindy Koch resigns

Mindy Koch resigned Wednesday as chair of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, less than six weeks after she survived an effort by the state Democratic Party to oust her.

The continued turmoil in the county party — with just six months left until the November elections — complicates the challenges faced by local and state Democrats as they attempt to recover from the political drubbing they took in 2022.

Koch has been the subject of withering criticism from a faction of the county Democratic Party organization almost from the moment she was elected to the position. The infighting led to the unsuccessful effort by state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried to remove her, and ultimately to her resigning.

“My hope is that in doing so I can expose this subversive, cancerous element … trying so hard to destroy the party from within,” Koch wrote in her resignation letter.

Koch submitted her resignation to Fried via email on Wednesday afternoon. Sean Rourk, the county party’s vice chair, becomes acting leader of the party.

“The ongoing vicious personal attacks and harassment directed toward me and my leadership team from a small minority of members of the Palm Beach County (Democratic Executive Committee) are destructive and unprecedented. The MAGA tactics of refusing to recognize my legitimate election as chair spawned a relentless campaign attacking me, the parliamentarian, the treasurer, the past parliamentarian, the membership chair, the precinct coordinator and others. It has made it impossible to fulfill our mission to elect Democrats,” Koch wrote.

Koch said in the letter she was left with “no choice but to resign” effective immediately.

In a telephone interview, Koch said, “I’m OK with the decision. I’ve never quit anything in my life. So this is a first for me,” she said. “My team was fabulous and very supportive. And I met some great people and learned some interesting things — and don’t think I’ll be up at 3:30 tomorrow morning.”

Koch, 70, is a retired educator.

County party

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.

The disunity could affect the ability of Democrats to effectively compete in November as they attempt to win back control of the Palm Beach County Commission and regain recent losses in state legislative districts.

The ultimate outcome — the end of Koch’s tenure as party chair — almost seems preordained since the night she won the job in December 2022 in the closest-possible election.

Koch 160 votes. 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 vice chair, Rourk, who ran on Cole’s slate of candidates, was also elected by just one vote. Cole-supported Rourk narrowly defeated Koch-supported Junaid Akther, who continued as the county’s state Democratic Party committeeman.

There was a deep generational and ideological split in the election in which Koch was picked.

The party was divided ideologically, between more moderate-centrist Democrats and people who are part of the more liberal progressive wing. And there is also a generational split between younger and older Democrats.

By the time the leadership elections were settled, the top six local party leaders included three from each side.

Fried intervenes

The anti-Koch faction had complained about the way she ran the party, including financial decisions.

Koch defended her stewardship on Wednesday, saying she raised $200,000 for the party since becoming chair. Besides fundraising, she said the county party during her tenure made strides in registering voters and re-enrolling voters to vote by mail.

And she forwarded Fried the copy of what she termed a “clean audit” of the county party’s finances along with her resignation letter.

On March 4, Fried declared dramatic action was needed to staunch problems in Palm Beach, Franklin and Miami-Dade counties, and suspended Koch.

Fried’s 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 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.”

On March 24, a committee of state party leaders decided to keep Koch in her job, while at the same time removing the two other suspended county leaders.

No rapprochement

After she prevailed, Koch said she would complete her term as county party chair, which would have run through the November election.

“We have Democrats we have to elect. That’s the job. That’s our one and only mission: electing Democrats,” Koch said.

The divisions remained.

“I thought it was all over after the central committee met (and reinstated her). It was not over. So here I was continuing to battle, and honestly we’ve got elections we’ve got to win and we’ve got Amendment 4 we’ve got to get passed,” she said, referring to the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.

“The lift that it takes, the effort that it takes, what they’re doing to me by the minority (faction in the party) is just more than a person can handle,” she said.

Turnaround needed

Koch won the job just after the 2022 midterm elections, which were a disaster for Democrats.

Election Day 2022 was ugly for state and county Democrats, as turnout plunged compared to the 2018 midterm elections.

The numbers tell part of the story: Though Democrats were far ahead in voter registration in 2022 in Palm Beach County — it was 40% Democratic, 29% Republican and 31% no party affiliation/independent and third party voters — Gov. Ron DeSantis won the county, with 51.2% of the vote.

DeSantis received 278,000 votes in the county — 15.5% more than the number of votes he received in 2018. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist received 263,000 votes in Palm Beach County — 23.1% fewer than the party’s 2018 nominee.

There were stinging local defeats as well.

County Commissioner Robert Weinroth (then a Democrat and now a Republican) lost his bid for reelection. An open County Commission seat held by a Democrat who was term-limited was picked up by a Republican. And a closely contested district for the state House of Representatives went Republican.

U.S. Rep.-elect Jared Moskowitz and state Sen. Tina Polsky have districts that cross county lines. Both lost the Palm Beach County parts of their districts, winning their offices on the strength of Democratic votes in Broward.

Since then, a Democratic county commissioner resigned and DeSantis appointed a Republican replacement — giving Republicans control. Elections in November will determine which party controls the commission.

Democratic stalwart

Koch has said she was motivated to get involved in politics during the post-election turmoil following the 2000 George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential contest.

Koch was vice chair of the county party until winning the chair job in December 2022, succeeding Terrie Rizzo, who had held the post for 10 years (and been a  previous state Democratic Party chair).

Koch has been a Democratic committeewoman since 2000, a position she has not relinquished, a former president of the Boca-Delray Democratic Club, and unsuccessful candidate for Florida Senate in 2016 and for the Florida House in 2018.

The retired educator taught at elementary and middle schools in Palm Beach and Broward counties, and was involved in the teachers’ unions in both counties. She is a past chair of the Broward Teachers Union Political Action Committee.

Koch said she isn’t sorry she sought the job.

“For the 15 months I was there, I think we did great work,” she said.

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