Florida Senate's Democratic leader says the state party is dead and he's leaving it

Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo’s announcement on the Senate floor Thursday that he’s changing his registration to no party affiliation is the latest blow to a party that has struggled to define itself after a series of crushing electoral losses in recent years.

Pizzo called modern partisanship “a mess” and said “constituents are craving practical leaders, not political hacks.”

Once the country’s premier swing state, Florida’s presidential elections used to be decided by the narrowest of margins. But the state has increasingly slipped out of Democrats’ grasp, and the GOP has made significant in-roads in formerly Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade County. Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by more than 1.2 million voters.