MIAMI – At the iconic Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, just after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gathered donors and activists during a crowded fundraiser in April for the Miami-Dade County Republican Party, a fight broke out between valet parking station. Several men in suits and a woman in a cocktail dress quarreled over whether or not they should have been allowed dinner at $ 250 a plate.
Someone alerted the police. The next day, a woman who had been escorted out of dinner renewed a restraining order against one of the men involved in the dispute, writing in her court petition that it was part of an “extremist cult of the far right “. He was referring to the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group that led the riots at the U.S. Capitol last year.
The man was one of at least half a dozen current and former proud boys who have secured seats on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee, seeking to influence local politics from within. His ranks include adherents facing criminal charges for participating in the Capitol attack: Gilbert Fonticoba has been charged with obstructing Congress. Gabriel Garcia, a former army captain who says he has left the group, has been accused of interfering with law enforcement officers during the January 6, 2021 civil unrest.
The Proud Boys’ concerted effort to join the party leadership — and in some cases run for local office — has dramatically destabilized and reshaped the Miami-Dade Republican Party that former Governor Jeb Bush and others almost became a power. four decades ago, transforming it from an archetype of the narrow establishment to an organization agitated by internal conflict as it struggles with the forces pulling it to the right. The conflict comes at a crucial time for Republicans nationwide, as primary voters consider whether to disengage the party from its extremist elements, or whether to accept them more fully.
“Yes, we have marginal elements,” said René García, chairman of the Republican committee of about 125 members of Miami-Dade County, who is also the county commissioner and former state senator. “Yes, we have different points of view in our party. That’s how we are. And my job as Republican president is to protect everyone’s first amendment, no matter how wrong they are. “
The Proud Boys spent nearly half a decade involved in often violent protests across the country over issues such as the removal of Confederate statues and the unfounded spread of Shariah law. After the attack on the Capitol, however, when the Proud Boys were being investigated by law enforcement and charged with federal crimes, they lowered their profile. The group dissolved its national leadership and encouraged the chapters to get involved in local issues, with the aim of gaining support before this year’s midterm elections.
“The plan of attack if you want to make a change is to get involved locally,” North Carolina Proud Boys, a senior member of the North Carolina Proud Boys, told The New York Times last year amid the change.
What they intend to do with their power is unclear. However, following a trend driven by far-right figures such as Stephen K. Bannon, Proud Boys began appearing at school board meetings to protest the mandates of coronavirus masks and the teaching of the anti-racist curriculum. .
In the Central Valley of California, members of the group have intimidated protesters who did not want a church to buy an LGBTQ theater in Fresno. A proud boy declared his candidacy for the Oregon legislature. A proud old Kansas boy lost a race for a seat in Topeka City Hall.
The Proud Boys’ invasions of the Miami-Dade Republican Party are by far the group’s biggest political success. The Fontainebleau incident was the latest to cause unrest in the party, as a small but growing number of Proud Boys have deepened existing divisions and injected an unusual degree of aggression into the usual dealings.
This shift to the right reflects the evolution of state and national Republicans, but it is notable for Miami-Dade, Florida’s most populous county, that Democratic presidential candidates have won since 1992. Republicans improved considerably. his performance in 2020, a change that has aggravated the prospects of Democrats. .
Chris Barcenas, a Republican committee member and Proud Boy, said he started thinking about running for a committee seat about a year ago.
“Instead of sitting on the sidelines complaining about the RINOs or whatever,” he said, referring to “Republicans only in name,” “I realized that in order to make changes, I had to be involved and be part of the process “.
Mr Bárcenas, 34, testified voluntarily a few months ago before the House select committee investigating the January 6 facts about his understanding of the role of the Proud Boys in the attack on the Capitol. He protested at the Capitol that day, but did not enter the building and has not been charged with any crime.
Gabriel Garcia, 37, who pleaded not guilty to charges in the Capitol attack, said the party was once the province of country club Republicans.
“I know a lot of people on the committee long before I supported people like Jeb,” Mr. Garcia, who lost a State House bid in 2020. “But when Trump won, almost everyone started falling in line.”
When asked for an assessment of the evolution of the party’s identity, Mr. Bush retorted. “I’m out of party politics and I can’t comment on what’s going on right now,” he said.
Miami-Dade Republicans paved the way for the party to establish long-term power in Florida by persuading large numbers of Cuban-Americans, who had historically registered as Democrats, to change their affiliation, driven by anti-communist policies. Ronald hard line. Reagan and George HW Bush. Many ran for office, feeding a generation of Cuban-American Republican politicians. Like the county itself, the party — and now its right flank — is dominated by Hispanics.
For the time being, party supporters have long held control in the midst of an internal power struggle, but the influx of Proud Boys and the radicalization of other members have caused considerable upheaval.
A woman on the committee named Barbara Balmaseda recently resigned from a leadership role after photos posted online showed her in the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and then inside the building. The FBI came to her home after the attack and asked for an interview, but she declined, according to her lawyer. Ms. Balmaseda, who has not been charged with any crime, has not publicly commented on the photos.
In a statement, Ms Balmaseda said she had resigned to focus on schoolwork and that the executive committee was “a waste of time as there are always fights and drama”.
The party’s executive director, Brandon Diaz, who is Mrs Balmaseda’s boyfriend, also resigned, claiming a job in the private sector. He said he had no role in recruiting or accepting committee members. “I don’t know who he is or who isn’t a proud guy,” he said, adding that he is not.
Both Mrs. Balmaseda and Mr. Diaz remain on the board of the Miami Young Republicans, a club within the party.
Last month, a Young Republican-led faction tried to oust some of the party’s veteran leaders, including Liliana Ros, who has been in the party for more than 40 years.
“Meetings are a lot of fights, people shouting,” said Ms. Ros, 79. “Nice people, decent people, people who are real Republicans, go away.”
Proud Boys’ South Florida chapters gained prominence after Enrique Tarrio, who later became the group’s national president, took over in late 2018. Mr. Tarrio is now in jail in Virginia on charges of conspiracy. in the attack on the Capitol.
The Proud Boys’ immersion in South Florida politics began before January 6th. Several members were elected party committees in 2020, and others ran unsuccessfully for legislative and municipal office.
One of them, Pedro Barrios, said in an interview outside a polling station in the heavily Cuban-American city of Hialeah on election day that the Proud Boys represented “anti-socialism.”
Mr. Barrios is now a party committee.
Nelson Diaz, president from 2012 to 2020, recalled that he kept far-right activists out of a 2018 Christmas celebration “for their status and reputation as aggressive.”
“I never knew who was a member of this group and who wasn’t,” he said.
In October 2018, Mr. Diaz and a couple of proud boys took part in a belligerent protest at a Democratic campaign event with Nancy Pelosi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. House. Mr. Diaz knocked on a door, for which he later apologized, while a boisterous mob and the proud boys shouted outside. Mr. Diaz and the Proud Boys said they did not know or coordinate their actions.
After that ugly scene, Mr. Diaz said he made party members who had not previously signed a Republican oath of allegiance relinquish their seats.
But the party ranks continued to attract members from the right. A former committee member, Christopher Monzon, acknowledged that he was once a member of the Southern White Supremacist League. In 2017, he was accused of using a Confederate flag to attack people protesting the names of Confederate streets in Hollywood, Florida.
Mr. Monzon, now 26 and vice president of the Miami Springs Republican Club, said he had gone down a “path of de-radicalization” and denied the racist ideology he had previously championed. However, when he ran unsuccessfully at Hialeah City Hall last year, he maintained some online ties with some of his Southern League friends.
He said the Proud Boys of the party assumed that he would support them because of their previous opinions.
“I’ve always been known as the radical, so they said to me,‘ Yeah, man, we’re going to get more people here, ’” he said.
Online detectives, …