The Maine Democratic Party announced in April that it had found a new executive director after an extensive search.
That new director served as the Florida Democrats’ Finance Director in 2020 when the party reached nearly $900,000 in debt, became temporarily unable to provide employees with health insurance, and was forced to return $780,000 in PPP loans intended for struggling businesses during COVID following backlash.
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Devon Murphy-Anderson served as finance director for the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) from December 2019 to March 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. During that time, the FDP and its closely interlinked federal arm, the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida (DECF), faced a variety of financial woes.
The FDP drew outrage from both outside their party and within in 2020 when it was revealed that the party had secured Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable, taxpayer-funded loans through its Florida Democratic Party Building Fund, a non-profit arm.
Those loans were intended to help small businesses struggling to make payroll and other essential payments due to COVID-era lockdown measures. The rationale was that businesses that could not operate due to lockdown measures would need to make up for lost income, but it’s not clear why a political party would apply for such a loan.
The then FDP chair, Terrie Rizzo, criticized the PPP program as a “disaster” that ultimately benefited large corporations. At the time of the criticism, Rizzo failed to disclose that the FDP had already applied for significant funds under the PPP program.
According to a Politico report at the time, the party ultimately applied for and was granted $780,000 under the program, which was eventually converted into outright transfers through the forgiveness of virtually every loan.
When the party’s acceptance of the loans came to light, Florida Democrats heavily criticized their own party, raising questions about the ethics and even the legality of a political party accepting PPP loans.
The FDP was never convicted of any legal offense for taking the loans, and the legal status of the decision remains unclear. However, following the complaints, the party decided to return the $780,000 they received.
At the time, the FDP criticized the Small Business Association for approving the political party’s request, rather than admitting that they should not have applied for loans intended for small businesses.
“The bank, the loan processor and agents of the Small Business Association approved the funding. It now seems they made a mistake in approving the funding so we are volunteering to return it,” said the party in a statement.
If the FDP had not returned the loan, which they said was intended to contribute to payroll expenses, American taxpayers would have essentially been bankrolling the Democratic Party’s political activism in Florida.
That was not the party’s only financial failure during Murphy-Anderson’s time as finance director.
By the end of 2020, the FDP was facing mounting debts. According to reports, their federal accounts held just $60,000 while they faced $869,000 in debt.
While facing mounting debts and during Murphy-Anderson’s tenure, the FDP reportedly allowed their employee health insurance coverage to lapse, leaving employees unknowingly without health care coverage from the end of November into February.
Rizzo claimed that the failure was due to a mix-up, not because the FDP was unable to pay for employee health benefits. She said that they had paid for the November benefits, but a review of their payments conducted by Politico reportedly revealed that their last payment to the insurance company, Florida Blue, had been in September.
“It’s important to know that the insurance was never cancelled— by me or any of the past leadership team,” she told Politico, “The party had the funds to pay the November health insurance bill, we paid it, and I have only recently been told that there was a delay in the check being applied, but the insurance provider is sending out a letter explaining that all policies will be honored and the January report will reflect that.”
Florida Blue also eventually sent a notice to FDP employees informing them that their employer had chosen to cancel their insurance coverage in a “difficult decision.” That notice reportedly went out over a month after employees were without coverage, and they were allegedly never notified by the FDP of the lapse.
The party’s former deputy director of analytics reportedly underwent surgery in January 2021, believing that she was still covered by insurance, only to receive a surprise $50,000 bill.
A 2022 Federal Elections Commission (FEC) document reveals yet more financial failure for the Florida Democrats through their federal branch, the DECF, which is closely intertwined with the FDP and shares the same address.
At that time, the FEC agreed to accept a $43,000 civil penalty from the Florida Democrats after they allegedly accepted contributions of over $10,000 from individuals, despite FEC policy forbidding a state committee of a political party from doing so.
The DECF reportedly accepted payments from 10 individuals totaling over $10,000 in 2020, as well as accepting prohibited contributions from anonymous donors.
The FEC complaint also accused the DECF of drastically underreporting their debts on initial reports.
Notably, the FEC accused the Florida Democrats’ treasurer Fran Garcia of misconduct, but made no accusations against Murphy-Anderson.
After her time working with the FDP’s troubled finances, Murphy-Anderson founded Mi Vecino, a non-profit dedicated to getting Hispanic people engaged in politics, and drawing Hispanic men away from President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
Mi Vecino operates in Florida, Arizona, Texas, and Maine, where Murphy-Anderson grew up lobstering.
