Politics | ‘I’m still the chairman,’ Palm Beach County Republican leader declares after no-confidence vote

The Palm Beach County Republican Party rebuked its leader, voting “no confidence” in Kevin Neal just seven months after he was elected county party chair.

The vote was 82-63, according to text and email and social-media messages from multiple Republicans who were present Thursday night.

The move does not remove Neal from his position. State party rules don’t allow a county party’s executive committee to remove its chair.

“It’s just an opinion,” Neal said Friday. “I’m still the chairman. It’s nonbinding. It’s similar to a straw poll.”

Neal said he participated in a meeting Friday morning with candidates for the March 19, city, town and village elections. “Our goal is to get Republicans elected. The subject of the meeting (Thursday) night was not about that.”

But the outcome demonstrates the degree of concern among a significant number of Republican committeemen and committeewomen at a time when energy is normally devoted to gearing up organizing and fundraising for the year’s big elections.

The no-confidence vote came Thursday night at a special meeting called by the party’s vice chair, state Rep. Rick Roth. It followed months of simmering discontent among some in the party, including other longtime leaders, that Neal wasn’t adequately communicating and wasn’t moving fast enough on fundraising.

The no-confidence vote was taken by Republican precinct committeemen and committeewomen from around the county who make up the Republican Executive Committee.

Neal critic Sid Dinerstein, who was party chair from 2002 through 2012, said Friday the result “was a serious statement that the REC understands that we are not having the kind of leadership that our constitution and bylaws requires.”

Neal said only about half the executive committee members were present at the special meeting called with about 10 days’ notice. “A lot of people were absent who would have voted for confidence.”

Videos of parts of the meeting posted by Republicans on Facebook showed that Joe Budd, the state Republican committeeman, made the motion to hold a vote of no confidence. Dinerstein described Budd as “on fire.”

“We were compelled to step forward and save 2024,” Budd said about himself and others who favored the vote of no confidence.

“There’s been a complete lack of communication” from Neal, Budd said. He said Neal’s decision not to have a January meeting of the full executive committee and the lack of information about the annual Lincoln Day fundraiser that powers the bulk of the party’s operations for the year prompted him and others to move forward with the motion.

“This will allow us to continue to hold his feet to the fire,” Budd said.

Budd was blunt in his assessment of the importance of the question. “A vote in support of Kevin is a vote against Trump,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump is enormously popular among Palm Beach County’s Republican committeemen and committeewomen, and the big Lincoln Day gathering is held each year at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

(Budd was an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 campaign when many leading Florida Republicans were supporting former Gov. Jeb Bush or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio for the nomination. Budd went on to found what is now known as Club47, the big pro-Trump organization. He has been supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis for the 2024 presidential nomination, but told the audience that in his role as state committeeman he is neutral in the primary contest.)

Also on Thursday night, Treasurer Jane Pike, first elected to her position in 2014, described a deteriorating financial condition. She detailed ongoing expenditures and said the money the party in the bank would run out without a big ramping up of fundraising, especially the big annual moneymaker, Lincoln Day.

“The problems that I’m looking at is because I’m looking forward month by month as to what our financial needs are and what our income is and what our outtake is,” Pike told the group. Video of her remarks was posted on Facebook.

In past years, she said, Lincoln Day fundraising began in the fall and money began coming in, but that hasn’t happened with the 2024 event, scheduled for March 15.

It wasn’t until this week, Pike said — with the special meeting to render a verdict on his performance — that Neal began providing details of Lincoln Day, including a partial speakers list and pricing.

“I applaud him for getting so much done this week, but it has been a stressful time for the last eight weeks for me to see nothing coming in, but for a single $100 a month coming in from a young man who put it on his recurring donations,” Pike said.

“It’s the cash flow that is of great concern for me. We are sitting (with) about $120,000 right now,” Pike said, describing $128,000 of upcoming expenditures. “I don’t like those low bank account numbers. That bothers me greatly.”

During much of the time that Budd and Pike spoke, videos show Neal listening, often looking down and sometimes shuffling papers or tapping a pen.

Finance reports filed with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office show the party took in $77,029 and spent $245,737 during the last six months of 2023. That’s the second lowest income and highest spending during the last half of an odd-numbered year (between election years) since 2011.

Neal has previously that significant money the party previously raised in the fourth quarter would come in during the first quarter of 2024. Tickets are on sale for the Lincoln Day gala, he said.

Neal sent a lengthy email to party members late Wednesday night — 20 hours before the scheduled start of the special meeting to discuss him — detailing his accomplishments and plans and rejecting the criticisms.

Neal attributed the discontent to his moves to implement changes in the way the party operates to improve its performance. When he ran for leadership posts and “during my time serving as an officer I have met with and spoken with many, many, many REC members and the common theme from most of them is that we need to make changes.

“For the last 14 years, Republicans have only been winning approximately 30% of races in Palm Beach County. Unfortunately, to say there has been a resistance to change among certain people is an understatement,” he said.

During the seven months he has been chair, Neal wrote, he has:

• Taken steps to get precinct lists to committeemen and committeewomen.>
• Consolidated regions and begun regular localized gatherings for training and deployment of activists to get Republicans elected.
• Met with Miami-Dade County Republican leaders to learn about their successful organizing efforts.
• Stepped up assistance to municipal candidates running in the March local elections.
• Pushed vote-by-mail signups.
• Worked on what he describe as “election integrity.”

He also excoriated his detractors, who he said have taken to disrupting meetings.

“If certain people would take the time and effort that they have exerted trying to illegally remove me as the Chairman and destroy my reputation, and instead, channeled that time and effort into supporting the REC and our candidates, we would certainly achieve our goal of getting Republicans elected,” he said.

The Palm Beach County Republican Party has had mostly stable leadership for more than two decades.

Neal, elected in June, is just the fifth county chair since 2002. Two of the five were elected to five, two-year terms.

Broward by contrast is on its 12th county Republican chair during the same time.

In December 2022, Neal challenged then-party Chair Michael Barnett for reelection. He lost that race, then challenged — and defeated — longtime vice chair Tami Donnally.

Weeks later, DeSantis appointed Barnett to fill a vacancy on the Palm Beach County Commission. In April, Barnett resigned the party role to focus on his county job and running to hold the office in 2024.

After serving as acting chair, Neal was elected in June to finish Barnett’s term.

One of the people he defeated was Roth, who then ran and was elected vice chair.

The party chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer are elected by committeemen and committeewomen from precincts throughout the county. The state committeeman and state committeewoman are elected by Republican primary voters in August of presidential election years.

Anthony Man can be reached at and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Post.news.