Pryor and the generational change in Broward County

Back in June, when voters in Broward were locked at home, trying to avoid the COVID-19 virus, it’s doubtful many of them had yet heard of Harold Pryor.

The young Margate attorney needed to build an identity fast in a field of eight Democrats running for state attorney. That person runs Broward’s biggest law firm, prosecutes criminals and fights public corruption. The powerful office has been in the hands of the same person, Mike Satz, for 44 years.

Pryor, 33, is a fifth-generation Floridian. Raised on the other side of the state in Dade City, north of Tampa, he calls himself an “old country boy,” but he quickly adapted to new political realities. “We were going to target minority communities and women of color,” Pryor said, “and we stuck to the plan.”

He did, even after the pandemic struck in March. One of Pryor’s tools to reach voters in the “pandemic primary” was a simple text message that consisted of fewer than two dozen words. It was clear and succinct.

“I’m Harold F Pryor,” he texted, “a Black father running for state attorney in Aug to deliver criminal justice reform & safer communities for your family and mine.”

At a transitional moment in America and in Broward, Pryor proudly ran on his race as well as his qualifications. His message was that racial disparities in the criminal justice system have festered for decades and he knew this from his own experience involving family members. He promises to be more visible and more transparent than Satz. He wants to stop disproportionate punishment of poor people and to stop using high conviction rates as a way to judge the value of a prosecutor.

“I’m trying to get people to understand the climate we’re in,” Pryor told me at the time. “I want people to know I have a Black son. That’s why I’m in this race.”

In that same conversation, discussing the obstacles candidates faced in trying to connect with voters, Pryor called it a blessing in disguise, and that’s exactly what seems to have happened.

People of every background embraced voting by mail like never before in Broward, and that includes the nearly 40 percent of Black Democrats. A political consultant involved in several races said 63 percent of Black Democrats returned their mail ballots, compared to 58 percent for whites and 43 percent for Hispanics.

Pryor’s name and face were on key palm cards, including those backed by county Mayor Dale Holness and former Sen. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, two men who rarely see eye-to-eye.

Day after day, mail ballots poured into the elections office. Pryor‘s team “chased” those ballots, as the process is known, collecting them from voters and putting them in drop boxes at early-voting sites. Pryor said the popularity of voting by mail among Black voters was surprising because of the level of mistrust in some communities with relying on a third party to process ballots.

Pryor had never run for office, was not well-known and did not have the most money. Josh Rydell raised twice as much money and Joe Kimok received a massive, but late, infusion of money from billionaire George Soros.

At 33, Pryor would be one of the youngest people ever to win election to a major office in Broward, but the county is trending younger. He seeks a high-profile office held for more than four decades by Satz, a white Jewish symbol of a very different Broward, in the 1970s and ‘80s, when the most important and influential voting bloc was Jewish retirees in massive condo complexes in Deerfield Beach, Sunrise and Tamarac.

Satz was already deeply entrenched in office and nearing the end of his third term when Pryor was born in 1987. But for those who might think Pryor is too young, Satz was 34 when he won the job.

Satz himself was a low-key and reluctant campaigner. But it was common in those days for candidates to advertise their Jewish heritage by displaying a Star of David on their brochures or highlighting membership in a synagogue. It was often criticized as crass pandering for votes. But it worked.

In Tuesday’s primary, Pryor, listed seventh in the eight-person field as Harold Fernandez Pryor, finished first with slightly more than 21 percent of the vote. His unofficial vote total on Friday (the official tally will be released next week) stood at 43,730.

In such a large field, in an election with a 26 percent turnout, that was enough to produce a victory, even though it represents less than 4 percent of the more than 1.2 million voters in the county, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

Pryor faces opposition in November from Republican Gregg Rossman, a former Broward prosecutor. Like Pryor, Rossman worked under Satz in an agency headed for sweeping changes. A third candidate, independent Sheila Alu, dropped out of the race this week and endorsed Pryor.

As the week ended, Pryor was constantly on the phone, but had not thanked his many supporters. He was making plans for a Facebook Live speech.

“It’s a great time to initiate change,” Pryor said. “We’re going to start anew.”

Steve Bousquet is a Sun Sentinel columnist. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240.

By Steve Bousquet