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Francis Suarez, The Mayor of Miami, Starts His Run for Presidential Bid, 2024

Divya Bhatia

Francis Suarez Presidential Bid

Francis Suarez, the Republican mayor of Miami, started his campaign for president for 2024 on Thursday. This was the official start of the long-shot candidate’s campaign. Francis Suarez, who filed to run on Wednesday, said in a video released Thursday morning:

“My dad taught me that you get to choose your battles, and I am choosing the biggest one of my life. I’m going to run for president, I’m going to run for your children and mine. Let’s give them the future they deserve. It’s time to take things into our own hands. It’s time to get things started.”

Later that night, during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Suarez tried to offer an alternative to former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis without naming either of them by name.

He urged Republicans to unite and reach out to Americans with Reagan’s “big tent” political philosophy. Suarez said:

“It’s time for a leader who can connect with segments of our country that Republicans have historically lost, like young voters and urban voters, and segments we can make gains with, like Hispanics and suburban women.”

Suarez, half-Cuban and half-American, is in his second term as mayor of Miami, the second most popular city in Florida. He was also the head of the non-partisan US Conference of Mayors until not long ago.

A super PAC that backs Suarez put out a two-minute video on Wednesday praising his leadership of the Florida city as he hinted at a long-shot run for the White House:

He mentioned in the video that:

“In Miami, we’ve grown a high-tech economy that delivers results, and voters have responded to our work by voting Republican at all levels, from my nearly 80% re-election results as mayor to the increasing large margins of Republican congressional candidates.” 

Suarez is the first prominent Hispanic Republican candidate to run. He starts as a clear underdog in the primary, with Trump, who lives nearby Palm Beach, and DeSantis far ahead in the polls.

In the primary, there are also former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The Republican race has also been thrown into chaos by the recent federal indictment of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified papers after he left office. The party base still likes the former president, and candidates have had different answers to the charges against him.

Suarez, who has been critical of Trump in the past, told Fox News on Sunday that the first federal charge of the former president felt “un-American” and “wrong on some level.”

Last month, Suarez told CBS News that choosing to run for president was a “soul-searching process.” He also said, “I’m someone who needs to be better known by this country.”

Suarez joined the GOP race later than some of his competitors, which could hurt his chances of making it to the first Republican primary debate on August 23 in Milwaukee. The Republican National Committee has set high standards for how healthy candidates do in polls and how much money they raise.

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He is a Well-known Mayor

Before becoming mayor for the first time in 2017, Suarez was a city commissioner for eight years. His father, Xavier Suarez, was also mayor of Miami in the 1980s and 1990s, but his last victory in 1997 was overturned after a probe into voter fraud.

As mayor, Suarez has worked to bring a new era of technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship to his city. He has done this by promoting industries like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. He has said Miami should be the new Silicon Valley and even asked Elon Musk to move Twitter’s base there.

Francis Suarez Presidential Bid
Francis Suarez’s Presidential Bid

The mayor has fought with DeSantis on a few occasions, including how the governor handled the Covid-19 pandemic, his claims of election fraud in the state, and, most recently, his fight with Disney.

But because Disney was against the bill, DeSantis planned to take over the special taxing district that helped Disney build its famous theme park business in Central Florida. Some Republicans worry about the move because they don’t think elected officials should use state power to punish a company.

Last month, Disney said it was giving up on plans to build a $1 billion office building that would have created about 2,000 white-collar jobs.

Suarez told NewsNation in May:

“He took an issue that was a winner and that we all agreed on, and it looks like now it’s something that’s spite or maybe potentially a personal vendetta, which has cost the state now potentially 2,000 jobs in a billion-dollar investment.”

During the pandemic, Suarez was against DeSantis closing bars while the number of Covid-19 cases in the state kept increasing. He mentioned “the issue of whether the decisions (made by the state) are data-driven or political.”

Suarez told the Miami Herald that he voted for DeSantis’ Democratic opponent in 2018 but that he voted for the governor in 2022.

Is He Having Home-court Advantage?

Suarez’s run for president comes when Florida, a swing state for a long time, has been moving toward the Republicans, especially among Hispanic voters.

In 2020, Trump lost 7 points in Miami-Dade County, the most famous county in the state and mostly made up of Hispanic people. This county is home to the city of Miami. Four years ago, he lost the county by 30 points to Hillary Clinton.

Last year, DeSantis was easily re-elected, in part because he did well in Miami-Dade, which has always been a significant source of votes for Democrats. DeSantis also won Osceola County, which is near Orlando and has a substantial Puerto Rican population and has been a Democratic stronghold in the past.

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He also mentioned joining Ronald Reagan Foundation:

I’m joining the @RonaldReagan Foundation at 9pm EDT for my very first speech as a candidate for President—and you don’t want to miss it! 

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