Broward County Democrats reelected Rick Hoye as party chair, hoping his plans to invigorate the county party’s infrastructure improve its performance in the 2026 gubernatorial and 2028 presidential elections.
Hoye won a second, four-year term with 59% of the 275 votes cast.
“Your trust and dedication mean the world to me. Congratulations to all those who were elected — this is a victory for our shared values and commitment to progress,” Hoye wrote afterward in a Facebook post. “I recognize that there is still much work to be done, and I hear the concerns raised. I will be working closely with my team to address the areas where we can improve.”
Two other leaders — the lead state committeewoman, Grace Carrington, and the recording secretary, Aude M.L. Sicard, were reelected, along with five new officers. Most were elected with sizeable margins. All but one was allied with Hoye.
As often happens with internal leadership contests in both political parties, it wasn’t harmonious before, during or after the Dec. 7 elections.
Voting stretched on for hours in what some said was a space that was too crowded. There were disputes over who was eligible to vote and how proxies for people who weren’t present were handled. And some want the state Democratic Party to order a do-over.
“There were some things during the day that were a little irregular,” said Alfredo Olvera, who unsuccessfully challenged Hoye.
Hoye said in an interview the county’s Democrats would come together. “We have a job to do. We understand that we have to be united against Republicans and their efforts to water down our influence and we’ll come together the way we have in the past. We’ll be fine.”
Todd Delmay, a Hollywood Democrat who supported Olvera, said he thinks party members should focus on winning public support and future elections, and not necessarily on relitigating the internal contest for county party officers.
“We need to come together, work together … avoid the infighting and just work together,” Delmay said. “How do we move on now to make sure that we are doing the work of registering more voters?”
He said, for example, it would be productive for the county party to work to raise money so its executive is a full-time staffer rather than working part-time.
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Broward Democrats
Democrats are still dominant in Broward County, and hold all the congressional districts, all countywide elected offices, all County Commission and School Board seats, and all but one state legislative district.
But many Democrats won with smaller margins in 2022 and 2024 than they had in previous elections. Political handicappers in both parties see signs that Republicans could score some picks in coming years if Democrats don’t change the current trajectory.
“Republicans have made gains in the last two or three decades, really, because of their commitment to long-term investment in the things that they want to change,” Hoye said. “Look at the way they communicate with Hispanic voters. Look at what happened in Miami, and that didn’t happen overnight. So we not only have to protect Broward, but we have to expand Broward’s blue strength so we can overperform for other parts of the state (and) so that we can keep them out of our backyard.”
Hoye, 45, of Sunrise, is an African American eighth-grade U.S. history teacher with strong ties to organized labor. He is the first non-white chair elected to lead the Broward Democratic Party. (A Black interim chairwoman served briefly decades ago.)
Newly elected officers are First Vice Chair Cheryl Levin, Second Vice Chair Kimberly Burke Mohorne, Corresponding Secretary Kim Schnitzius, Treasurer David Kent, and Lead State Committeeman Percy Johnson.
Hoye said he’s in a good position to lead efforts to reach out to Democratic voters and potential Democratic voters.
“I’m a working-class citizen. I’m a teacher. I’m a unionist. I understand their issues because their issues are mine. And they want to know that the Democratic Party understands their issues,” he said.
“I know that the demographics are changing, but we have to do our due diligence in making sure that we’re adjusting to the changing times, without losing a focus on our core mission as Democrats,” Hoye said.
Olvera said Hoye has lots of work ahead to register voters, court Hispanic voters and “have accountability and transparency” within the party. “I wish him and the team the best of luck.”
Voting eligibility
Party officers are elected by committeemen and committeewomen from precincts across the county.
Committeemen and committeewomen are elected in the August primary if there are too many candidates for the available spots in a precinct.
If there isn’t competition, candidates are elected in their precincts without facing the voters, the same system that’s used for any public office in Florida when there isn’t a contest.
This year there were no contests for Democratic committeeman or committeewoman in any of Broward’s precincts.
Olvera and his supporters are questioning how and why committeemen and committeewoman contests were avoided and why some people are listed in precincts where they don’t live. Olvera said a total of 38 names are in question. About one-third listed the incorrect precinct on their qualifying paperwork, he said, and about two-thirds “were reassigned by the Broward Democratic Party to a different precinct.”
The Supervisor of Elections Office website shows 372 committeemen and committeewomen.
Florida law is clear: “Each county committeeman or committeewoman shall be a resident of the precinct from which he or she is elected.”
Residency also is spelled out by state Democratic Party rules. A Nov. 26 letter from state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried to Hoye, a copy of which was provided by an Olvera supporter, cited a party bylaw specifying that committeemen and committeewomen “are registered Democrats, and who reside in, are registered to vote in, and are elected from the precinct they are to represent.”
Delmay said he doesn’t know his status.
Voter registration records show Delmay lives in Precinct V003 in Hollywood. The roster of precinct committee members on the Supervisor of Elections website shows him representing Precinct V002.
After the August primary, Delmay said he received a certificate showing he was elected in Precinct V002. “I knew it was the wrong number immediately, so I reached the supervisor of elections (office) and they told me that the original list, the spreadsheet sent to them” had been “updated” to put him in Precinct V002.
Voter registration records also show that Mohorne, who was elected as the party’s second vice chair, is registered to vote in Precinct G008 in Margate. The roster on the Supervisor of Elections Office website lists her as a Precinct G007 committeewoman.
Reached by phone on Friday, Mohorne referred an inquiry to her attorney, Sandra Cherefre, who said Mohorne completed her paperwork with the correct precinct. She referred questions to the Supervisor of Elections Office.
Cherefre termed it “inaccurate” to say Mohorne doesn’t live in the precinct she represents. “She provided her address on the documentation. If something happened with the supervisor of elections, then have that conversion with him.”
Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott said earlier in the week that his office treated candidates for the precinct jobs the way it handles candidates for municipal elections that the office administers for a local government.
If the organization such as a city — or in this case, the Democratic Party — said the candidates should go in a certain slot, that’s where they were placed.
“The Democratic Party has their own procedures. And we just respect their procedures of what they would like to do. We just basically went off of that,” Scott said. “We received a letter from the party basically explaining how they wanted things to be set up. … These organizations have their own bylaws and their own procedures and it’s not really up to my office to try to interpret their rules or bylaws.”
Hoye said he doesn’t see an issue. “I believe everyone’s in their proper place,” he said. “We worked with the supervisor based on what they told us was proper. … We sent a list back according to what they told us were the proper modifications.”
Olvera said the state Democratic Party “needs to intervene and needs to redo this election and needs to do better credentialing.”
He said he didn’t know if he’d run for county chair if the state party ordered a new election. Olvera continues as president of the Dolphin Democrats LGBTQ+ political club, and as a precinct committeeman.
Representatives for the Florida Democratic Party didn’t respond to requests for comment on Thursday or Friday.
Hoye said the questions stem from people who are “just not happy with the outcome. But we play by the book.”
Anthony Man can be reached at [email protected] and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
