Longtime Orlando city commissioner Tony Ortiz, representing parts of the Curry Ford neighborhood and Lee Vista, has denounced his former affiliation with the Republican Party and has switched his party affiliation to Democrat.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Ortiz is also interested in running for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s seat in 2027, confirming rumors about a potential run, but denied that this switch has anything to do with that.

In an op-ed shared with local media outlets, Ortiz admitted he once believed the Republican party “stood for duty, accountability, individual freedom and family values.” As the representative of a “diverse, working-class district,” however, the former cop expressed disappointment with the GOP turning its back, in his eyes, “on the very people I’ve sworn to protect.”

Ortiz has served as a city commissioner for 17 years, first assuming office in 2008. The role of a city commissioner is officially nonpartisan. In a city that trends more Democratic than the rest of the state, especially in recent years amid Florida’s shift from purple to red, Ortiz was one of just two city commissioners in Orlando registered as Republicans (the other being Jim Gray).

Ortiz wrote in his opinion article that he opposed efforts by the GOP to target the LGBTQ+ community, suppress voting rights, and erode “the social safety nets that support families with disabilities, seniors and the working poor.”

Florida Republicans in the state Legislature have ignored efforts by Democrats to expand Medicaid in Florida, and recently passed a law that will make it harder for voters to do it themselves through the citizens’ ballot initiative process. The Trump administration, on a federal level, has also floated or otherwise executed cuts to public healthcare programs and has already begun hacking away at the Social Security Administration, which administers the Social Security program.

“These are not abstract issues to me,” Ortiz wrote, further denouncing the marginalization of immigrants and the Republican Party’s dismissal of the climate crisis for being “politically inconvenient.” Ortiz once championed Orlando’s Trust Act, a city ordinance barring police officers from questioning people about their immigration status during routine interactions that has since been effectively defanged by state immigration enforcement orders.

“[T]he marginalization of Latinos and immigrants — many of whom have helped build this country and proudly served in its defense — is not leadership,” Ortiz argued. “It’s fear-based politics.”

Ortiz has frequently been re-elected to the City Commission by default over the years, facing zero challengers over the last three election cycles (dating back a decade at this point). His district covers the Lake Underhill area and parts of the Curry Ford and Lee Vista areas down South Semoran Boulevard to McCoy Road.

His bucking of the Republican Party comes shortly after the departure of three state Democrats from the Democratic Party, none of whom represented residents locally (although they conveniently waited until after last year’s elections to switch).

Florida Sen. Jason Pizzo, the former Senate minority leader and rumored candidate for Florida Governor in 2026, was the most recent politician to ditch the Florida Democratic Party last month, dramatically declaring the party “dead.” He has since switched his party affiliation to independent, while two of his colleagues in the state Legislature — Tampa Rep. Susan Valdes and Broward County Rep. Hillary Cassel — switched their affiliation from Democrat to Republican in December.

This has allowed the former Democrats to vote in favor of things like renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America or requiring Florida teens to get parental consent in order to receive treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without earning flak from their Democratic colleagues.

State Republicans in Florida in recent years have been willing to throw abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights under the bus, while also undermining the power of organized labor, cutting the minimum wage for employees of government contractors and preventing cities and counties from enacting basic heat protection requirements for workers in their communities.

Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer for his part, also a Democrat, welcomed Ortiz to his party. “His voice, grounded in honorable service, will strengthen our shared commitment to equity, dignity, and opportunity for all,” Dyer shared in a statement.

This post has been updated to add a statement from Mayor Dyer, emailed to us by a comms person for Ortiz after this story was first published.

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This article appears in May 7-13, 2025.

General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.