Evan Power re-elected as Florida GOP Chair by resounding vote

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power won election to a full two-year term heading the state party.

And the final vote wasn’t close.

At a quarterly meeting at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Power fended off a challenge by freshly-elected Charlotte County GOP Chair Dave Kalin in a 183-19 vote.

Power argued that in the year since he took over as state Chair in the wake of former Chair Christian Ziegler’s sex scandal, the party saw unprecedented electoral success in November.

“When I took over the party, we all didn’t work together as well as we could have,” Power said in a chair speech. “Now we’ve had a complete partnership with the Senate and the House, our members of Congress, our statewide elected officials, and I think it’s been great to have us all working together.”

Power ahead of the meeting appeared on track to win the seat. Still, he had dissenters, with members of the Florida Republican Assembly and other allied groups protesting outside the convention. Many carried signs promoting Kalin, a former candidate for Charlotte County Supervisor of Elections, as an alternative choice.

Kalin in a speech said it was time for “a new day for the RPOF.”

“I stand here not to oppose a person, but an ideology,” Kalin said, “an ideology of division versus unity, an ideology that puts party before putting our constitution first.”

Protesters outside the event complained Power had removed numerous conservative activists. The protesters mostly were members of the Florida Republican Assembly from local Republican Executive Committees around the state, and Kalin spoke

“I’m not a divider. I am a unifier,” Kalin said. “I will lobby for the people, not for a private consulting firm. I am not compromised. My morals are not for sale.”

Power, though, also said he wanted greater unity within the party, and said he has provided that over the last year.

“We’ve turned the Republican Party into the model for the nation. But I’m here to tell you, this isn’t the time to slow down,” he said. “The stakes are too high. The opportunities before us are too great.”

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