Early years Detzner graduated from
Florida State University in 1975. He was a registered Democrat until 1984 when he changed his registration to Republican. He worked as a
lobbyist for the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association. He served as
chief of staff to
James C. Smith, then the
Secretary of State of Florida, from 2002 to 2003.
Secretary of State of Florida After the
2002 election,
Governor of Florida Jeb Bush appointed Detzner as interim Secretary of State, prior to the swearing-in of
Glenda Hood. In January 2012, Florida Secretary of State
Kurt S. Browning announced his resignation to run for
School Superintendent of
Pasco County.
Rick Scott, the Governor of Florida, appointed Detzner to the position to succeed him on January 18, 2012, and he was confirmed by the
Florida Senate in late February. As Florida Secretary of State, Detzner has been accused of continuing a "voter purge" begun by Browning. The
United States Department of Justice asked the state to suspend the practice of removing possible ineligible voters from voters lists. Detzner called for machine recounts in the
2018 U.S. Senate election and
2018 gubernatorial election. He called for manual recounts in the U.S. Senate race on November 15, 2018. ==References==