Gaza war debate fractures Democrats in Florida’s third largest county

A statement posted by the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee on social media in late January

It’s unclear how badly the fissure that emerged among Democrats amid Israel’s war with Hamas hurt Kamala Harris’ chances of beating Donald Trump, but the resulting bad blood continues to roil relationships within the Florida Democratic Party.

For example, allegations that a volunteer engaged in antisemitic behavior have split the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, third largest in the state. The bitter feud broke out just as Democratic voter registration in the county dipped behind the Republican Party’s.

Earlier this month, the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee’s (HCDEC) steering committee voted to suspend precinct captain Russ Miller for two years after he was accused of hate speech targeting both the Jewish Caucus and some of its members.

That decision followed months of fruitless calls by the Jewish Caucus to remove Miller, which infuriated other caucuses and individuals within the party as well. After an initial vote by all party members to remove Miller failed last month, six of those caucuses announced that they would abandon the party for at least a year.

For his part, Miller takes strong objection to being sanctioned over his criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war and his statements to and about the Jewish Caucus.

“I do not hate Jewish people,” he told the Phoenix. “I do not feel bigotry towards Jewish people and none of what I have said should be construed as hate speech. That’s been very twisted.”

If recently elected Hillsborough party chair Vanessa Lester thought Miller’s suspension would begin to heal the party, that doesn’t seem to be the case so far (she did not return several messages from the Phoenix for comment).

“We are taking a wait-and-see approach,” Stephen Shaiken, chair of the Jewish Caucus, said in an email last week. He added in a comment to the Jewish Insider that the Democratic Executive Committee (DEC) “is still infested with antisemitism on a large and hateful scale.”

How Gaza split Democrats

Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in some 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of about 250 people. The 16-month Israeli military campaign that followed has resulted in the death of more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the official Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The war has devastated the densely populated and impoverished territory. A cease-fire has been in place since Jan. 19, with Hamas returning a total of 25 hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel (the Israeli government said Sunday that they are delaying the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners until Hamas releases more hostages, according to The New York Times).

The Biden-Harris administration strongly supported the Israeli government’s response to the Hamas attacks (including supplying more than 50,000 tons of weaponry, according to a ProPublica report in October). While the U.S. public has largely supported the former administration’s approach, fierce opposition emerged, predominantly via protests on college campuses in Florida and across the nation.

At one point, Democrats expressed fears of major demonstrations at the United Center in Chicago, site of August’s Democratic National Convention. While that didn’t play out (the Democratic National Committee denied any Palestinian American access to the main stage), the split within some parts of the party have never fully healed.

The issue has divided Democrats elsewhere in Florida, as well.

A month after the Hamas attack, Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon’s resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Middle East was labelled antisemitic by both Republicans and Democrats in the Florida House.

South Florida state Rep. Hillary Cassel mentioned the party’s treatment of Israel when she stunningly announced in December that she was jettisoning the Democratic Party and would become a Republican.

“As a proud Jewish woman, I have been increasingly troubled by the Democratic Party’s failure to unequivocally support Israel and its willingness to tolerate extreme progressive voices that justify or condone acts of terrorism,” she wrote in a statement.

Cassel’s fellow South Florida Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb refuted that assertion.

“As leader of the Florida Jewish Legislative Caucus and a Democrat, I feel that we do strongly support Israel and Jewish causes and Jews throughout the diaspora,” Gottlieb told the Phoenix.

Additional Florida Democrats have left the party because they didn’t approve of Biden’s support of arm sales to Israel during the conflict. Miami activist Thomas Kennedy, a then Florida delegate to the Democratic National Committee, resigned a year ago “in large part because of the Biden administration’s inexcusable support of Israeli war crimes and the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.”

A report released this month by the American Jewish Committee found American Jews slightly more likely to disapprove of how the Democratic Party was responding to antisemitism than they did the Republicans. Majorities of Jews disapproved of both parties’ approaches.

The survey, conducted late last year, found Jews equally worried about antisemitism on the “extreme political right” and the “extreme political left.” But that represented a notable shift from four years earlier, when Jews were much more likely to say the extreme right represented an antisemitic threat.

The offending comments and actions

The first thing Miller did to rile the Jewish Caucus and others last year was to post a cartoon on social media depicting a soldier with the Israel Defense Forces looking in the mirror with an image of a Nazi staring back at him.

He later sent emails to political candidates directing them not to attend Jewish Caucus functions or accept its financial contributions to their campaigns.

And there were reports that Miller was urging canvassers not to wear the blue T-shirts worn by Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee members because they represented a color associated with the Israeli flag; instead, they should wear green shirts in solidarity with the Palestinians, he suggested.

On that latter claim, Miller says that when he formed an “Anti-Genocide Coalition” within the Hillsborough Party last year, he announced that team members would wear green T-shirts “to show our passive recognition of what was happening,” and that he didn’t want them wearing blue and white because “they were also the colors of the Israeli flag.” (Blue is a color also associated with the Democratic Party itself.)

In one social media post, he described those “trying to gloss over the Gaza genocide” as “Zionazi” sympathizers, a phrase Miller now says he regrets.

To Shaiken, those actions constituted “classic antisemitism.”

“Whether the person intended it that way, whether they meant it that way, whether other people will interpret it the same way I do, those are all open questions,” he said. “But if you’re asking me, how do I interpret it? When someone says, ‘Don’t work with the Jewish Caucus and don’t take their money.’ What am I supposed to think?”

Miller doesn’t deny directing candidates to avoid the Jewish Caucus, which he called a “hate group” in a statement he emailed to other Democrats in January.

When asked how he could justify that accusation, Miller cited a piece Shaiken had written on his Substack account last May blasting Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. Tlaib drew a censure from Congress in November 2023 for comments related to Israel and Palestinians.

In that piece, Shaiken blasted Tlaib for calling Joe Biden names for supporting Israel in the war. He concluded his piece by calling her a “liar, terrorist-supporter and enabler, Jew-hater, traitor.”

“I don’t know how that’s not considered hate speech,” Miller said.

Shaiken replied via email.

“I wrote the Rep. Tlaib was censured by the House with 22 Democrats joining in finding she had been disloyal to the U.S. by saying she believed Hamas over the CIA and for making antisemitic statements,” he said.

“How can reporting votes on those be hate? That is a public record. Besides, assume it was only my belief and there was no censure: How does that make a group a hate group? And isn’t Miller claiming he is being punished for a viewpoint, then he calls for boycotting an entire caucus because of a viewpoint?”

Raised hackles

Miller’s suspension by the party’s steering committee has raised hackles with party activists who support his side and consider the sanction undemocratic, since it overruled a vote by the entire local party that took place as recently as Jan. 27 and fell well short of the two-thirds required for passage. In fact, more people opposed than supported the sanction.

“You have proven, time and again, that you do not have the integrity or the courage to lead,” Carolina Ampudia, past president of the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida, scolded local party chair Lester in an “open letter” shared on Facebook.

“You have no problem silencing dissent when it is politically inconvenient for you, even though you yourself have been protected and uplifted by the very voices you now work to suppress,” Ampudia added.

She has since filed a formal complaint to the FDP and the DNC.

Kimberely Smith, president of the Tampa Bay Democratic Labor Caucus and vice chair of the Florida Democratic Labor Caucus, says Miller was the victim of a “witch hunt” and that the Hillsborough Democratic Party mishandled the situation.

“It is a sensitive topic, and I understand that,” she said. “On the other hand, the Democratic Party is supposedly about the working class and the working people. Yet all we’ve done is get rid of a volunteer. It hasn’t fixed the fact that we continue to lose Florida.”

In the steering committee meeting that led to Miller’s suspension, Smith said she brought up the Merriam-Webster’s definition of genocide.

“I explained that, ‘Look, I don’t want to be labeled antisemitic because I’m pro-peace. I am against war. But that doesn’t mean that I’m anti-Israel or anti-Jewish. … I don’t believe Russ Miller is antisemitic. He’s never seems that way to me. I feel like he’s very passionate about peace and passionate about fellow human beings, be it Jewish people, Palestinians, all people.”

Fallout within the Hillsborough Democratic Party

The failed membership vote to exile Miller in late January was the last straw not only for the Jewish Caucus, but for five additional clubs and caucuses within the Hillsborough party. The leaders of those groups sent a letter to Lesser the day after the vote to note “an increase of hate speech and antisemitism being tolerated within our HCDEC.”

Also tendering his resignation was Luis Salazar, Hillsborough’s lead state party committeeman and chair of the local LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, over what he sees as leadership’s attempt to remain neutral in the dispute, which he considers unacceptable.

“As a leader, you have to take a stand on the subject — you have to say, ‘This is not okay and these are the things that we’re going to do to rectify it,’” he told the Phoenix. “Something that was not being done by the leadership at the current time, so they chose silence and to work on the back end but not let anybody know what’s going on, so there’s no transparency.”

“It’s sad, but this entire situation could have been handled by the prior administration, and this administration as well,” added Victor DiMaio, head of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Hillsborough County. “They’ve totally mishandled this since the beginning. This should have been done a long time ago. They let it fester, and it’s caused nothing but embarrassment for the party.”

Ione Townsend stepped down in December after serving as Hillsborough party chair for nearly a decade. Although she removed Miller as volunteer coordinator for the party relatively early in this saga, he remained a precinct captain.

The situation drew the notice of Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Chair Nikki Fried, who weighed in before the party’s Dec. 2 meeting, telling members that Miller had continued to “intimidate” Jewish members of the local party and called on them “to use your authority to remove him from all official positions within your organization.”

A week later, Miller responded, explaining to Hillsborough Democrats in a letter why he would continue to participate in the party despite “the ominous hostility of a shameless and powerful interest group towards me.”

“At this moment of history, I can think of no more worthy cause than stopping an American-supported genocide in Gaza,” he wrote, adding, “I have Palestinian friends there I care very much about. How can I not stand up for them?”

So, while Miller is now sidelined by the party, he says he’s remaining active, working with the Tampa chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, which saw its membership peak shortly after Bernie Sanders second run for president.

Defectors

As far as the Hillsborough County Democratic Party? It is not in a good place right now. The castoffs include some unhappy with what they saw as an increasing “leftward” drift of the party, although no one saying that has provided the Phoenix with concrete details.

Several defectors say that they’re going to devote their time and financial resources to The Hillsborough Society, a 10-year-old nonprofit co-founded by former state Chief Financial Officer and 2010 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink. The organization has formed a separate political committee to raise money for local Democrats.

The Society held a reception last week that sources say attracted around 120 community and union members as well as representatives of the party’s Hispanic, LGBTQ, and Jewish caucuses.

“We’re not competing with the [Hillsborough] Democratic Party,” insists Mark Hanisee, a prolific fundraiser for the Hillsborough Democrats over the past several years who is now executive vice president of The Hillsborough Society. “They have their own goals. Unlike a party, we don’t have all of those statutory requirements that are placed on a county party and a state party. We’re going to be more community involved, working with them on issues.”

The state party considers the problem settled now.

“The FDP was made aware of accusations of antisemitism last summer and has worked with the Hillsborough County DEC to address them internally within the framework provided in our bylaws,” spokesperson Eden Giagnorio said. “We take all accusations of hate speech seriously and provided guidance to party leaders on ways to address the situation.

“The FDP considers this matter closed. Going forward, our hope is for both the county party and the caucuses to move past this and refocus on registering Democrats and winning elections.”