Miami mayor launches 2024 Republican presidential bid

Miami Mayor Francis Saurez joins a packed field of Republican candidates dominated by former President Donald Trump.

Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, Florida, has become the last republican to launch a bid for the 2024 United States presidential race.

The son of a prominent Cuban-American politician and a rising Republican star in his own right, Suárez filed documents with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to formalize his campaign, according to US media reports.

Suárez’s entry into the race makes him the third major political figure from Florida to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Two current Republican favorites are based in the state: former president donald trump and his closest rival, florida governor ron desantis.

The 45-year-old mayor, however, would be the only major Hispanic candidate to run so far. Florida has long been a prized swing state, though recent trends indicate it is leaning more to the right, and its large Cuban-American population has been an influential Republican base for decades.

But Suárez has an uphill battle to unseat Trump at the head of the Republican field. On Tuesday, as Trump faced federal prosecution in a classified documents case, Suárez made an appearance outside the Miami courthouse where the proceedings were taking place, only to be confronted by angry protesters who called him a “swamp monster” or “RINO,” an acronym for “Republican in name only.”

Suárez has publicly distanced himself from both Trump and DeSantis, positioning himself as a more centrist Republican voice.

When Trump dismissed the Caribbean country of Haiti as a “shit hole,” Suárez took to Twitter to “heartily condemn the discriminatory comments,” citing his family roots in the immigrant community.

Suárez also told the US media that he did not vote for Trump’s 2020 re-election bid. Explaining his decision to the Politico publication, Suárez said: “A politician has to be, I don’t want to say perfect, but he has to be somebody. . for him to be courteous, to treat people with respect, to inspire people, to have that set of characteristics.”

Suárez was also openly skeptical of DeSantis’ early gubernatorial run, choosing instead to vote for his Democratic rival Andrew Gillum in the race 2018. But by 2022, when DeSantis made a second successful run for the governor’s mansion, Suárez had thrown his support behind the Republican.

However, Suárez has remained a critical voice. In May, he criticized DeSantis’s ongoing dispute with the disney entertainment companycalling it a “personal vendetta” on NewsNation’s The Hill.

Suárez himself has come under fire in recent months as he faces accusations of misusing his position to help a real estate developer, Location Ventures, obtain permits for a condominium project.

While the mayor of Miami is allowed to hold paid positions outside of office, the position is prohibited from seeking to “secure special privileges or exemptions.” A local newspaper, the Miami Herald, reported this month that the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation.

First elected as Miami mayor in 2017, Suárez has long been weighing a remote presidential bid, with reports dating back to 2021, the same year as his re-election.

His father, Xavier Suárez, was Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor, initially elected in 1985. And during his own tenure as mayor, the young Suárez positioned Miami as America’s next great tech hub, seeking to attract talent. away from the traditional bases of innovation. like California’s Silicon Valley during the height of the coronavirus pandemic

“We want to be on the next wave of innovation,” Suárez told the New York Times publication DealBook in 2021. He announced on Twitter that he would accept salary payments in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, though other digital currencies it publicly endorsed, such as MiamiCoin, have either plummeted or been embroiled in scandal since.