Does anyone know about the TEA Party of Florida vs. "The Tea Party?"?

It came up that my new [ex-] bf is a member of the TEA Party of Florida. Personally, hearing that he’s a “tea partier” was a dealbreaker for me in a new relationship.

He tried to explain that it’s unrelated to the radical Tea Party group, and that his party came first, and thus that I shouldn’t dump him just for that. I tried to google the situation to find out if this is in fact the case, but I couldn’t find much.

Does anyone know about the Florida party and if it is, in fact, unrelated to the radical Tea Party?

What I don’t want to hear is that difference in politics is a bad reason to dump someone (he also wears those individual toe shoes), since it’s irrelevant to the question.

Thanks!