COVID-19 propels Gimenez in House race vs. Mucarsel-Powell
Emergency text alerts. Robocalls about antibody tests. Executive orders. Mayor Carlos Gimenez is everywhere as Miami-Dade County fights a coronavirus pandemic and he campaigns for Florida’s 26th House district.
When Miami-Dade residents receive a call to participate in a ground-breaking blood test for the coronavirus, it’s not a researcher on the other end of the line. It’s the mayor.
“Our community is facing an unprecedented challenge as we grapple to stop this global pandemic,” Carlos Gimenez says in a recorded message randomly reaching more than 700 people a week under a surveillance testing program with the University of Miami. “Now, I need your help to stop the spread in Miami-Dade County. That’s why I’m calling you.”
As he wields unprecedented power fighting the epicenter of Florida’s coronavirus pandemic, Gimenez, the three-term Republican mayor of MiamiDade County, is also generating unmatched expo
sure in his congressional campaign against an incumbent Democrat who struggles for attention by comparison. The county’s response to the outbreak has allowed Gimenez, already one of the most powerful politicians in South Florida, to campaign in just about the only way possible during a deadly epidemic: by doing his job.
Over the last month, as the county’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 have topped 5,000, U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell — a first-term congresswoman whose win flipped the seat for Democrats — has remained relevant by fighting to help a family stranded overseas, conducting regular video conferences and TV interviews and advocating for small businesses and farmers in her Westchester-to-Key West district. But her likely challenger, who is expected to emerge this summer from the Republican primary for the seat, has over the same period issued emergency declarations with sweeping economic and public health consequences, participated in press conferences with the governor and become a mainstay on social media feeds and news programs.
Gimenez’s name was even added to jarring, county-authored, emergency text messages sent three times a week that interrupt phone calls and force just about every cellphone user in the county to look down at their screens. The messages, attributed to the mayor, warn, “You are safer at home — maintain social distancing of 6 feet.”
“I am the face of MiamiDade County,” Gimenez said Monday, when asked why his name was added to the text blasts after county emergency managers initially sent them out last week unattributed. “We want to make sure people know they’re safer at home.”
Gimenez has been omnipresent since the early weeks of the pandemic, when Gov. Ron DeSantis granted wide latitude to local authorities to respond to coronavirus outbreaks as they see fit, and he remains highly visible.
“There’s a lot you can say about Carlos Gimenez, but crises are actually where he does well. He’s a manager. He was a fire chief. This is where he excels,” said Elnatan Rudolph, a Miami-based politics and communications strategist. “You could say he’s campaigning, but he’s being the mayor.”
Rudolph, who made texting a feature of the 2018 gubernatorial campaign for DeSantis, said that between the public safety alerts, blood testing robocalls and press conferences where the mayor is center stage or on screen, Gimenez is probably receiving the equivalent of more than $1 million a week in advertising. “His name is plastered on everything right now,” Rudolph said.
Mucarsel-Powell has done her best to keep up.
She has used her position to advocate for MiamiDade’s first drive-through coronavirus testing center and help an American family stranded in Peru return home, and she has hosted informational conference calls to keep constituents informed. Michelle Gajewski, a senior adviser to the Miami congresswoman, said Mucarsel-Powell is focused on helping people.
“Every day her office is working with constituents one-on-one who need help,” Gajewski said in a statement. “Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell’s priorities are keeping South Floridians safe during this public health crisis, ensuring her constituents have access to the healthcare they need and getting money into their hands as fast as possible to help stabilize the economy.”
Mucarsel-Powell has largely avoided direct attacks on Gimenez, though she did call Sunday for an investigation into the death of a Carnival Cruise Line passenger who died of COVID-19 after being left on the ship for hours after it docked at PortMiami — a county-run facility. And she offered veiled criticism of Miami-Dade County’s response to the pandemic during a recent MSNBC interview.
“What I’m seeing locally now here in the county, in Miami-Dade, is that everyone is out on their own, bidding for test swabs, bidding for PPE equipment,” Mucarsel-Powell said, adding that “there’s no coordinated effort” between state and local officials.
Gimenez has arguably spent more time feuding with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez than with MucarselPowell. Gimenez recently told the White House to ignore Suarez’s request to end flights to Miami from coronavirus hot spots, and said in early March, after Suarez canceled the Ultra Music Festival, that he would have allowed it to go on as scheduled on March 20.
“We have led, and the county has followed, on almost everything,” Suarez shot back, during a March 31 press conference.
Michael Hernández, a former senior advisor for Gimenez and former Democratic campaign consultant for Mucarsel-Powell, said Mucarsel-Powell can’t make the same kind of impact with voters as Gimenez because she is part of a 435-person legislative body where party leaders largely call the shots. Her biggest job — voting to approve a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package — was completed two weeks ago. And Congress isn’t expected to reconvene for at least two more weeks.
But Hernández said Gimenez — who timed his campaign rollout in January to a Trump handshake and endorsement — could face a huge problem if the county’s coronavirus outbreak worsens or he bungles the county’s response.
“This could raise Gimenez 10 points or it could drop him 10 points,” said Hernández, who is also a political analyst for Telemundo. “Carlos Gimenez currently has the local bully pulpit but that could also backfire on you.”
Hernández noted that voters who participated in a recent University of North Florida poll gave mayors in Florida higher marks on their COVID-19 response than either DeSantis or Trump. But voters in Miami were polled about Suarez — the city of Miami mayor — not Gimenez.
For now, though, the deadly crisis appears to be giving a boost to Gimenez, whose chances of winning were increased on March 27 by the Cook Political
Report. The congressional handicapping website still gives the edge to MucarselPowell, but downgraded her likelihood of winning reelection.
Gimenez continues to be active. On Wednesday, he planned to participate in four press conferences — starting with the opening of a testing site at the site of the Miami-Dade Youth Fair in the morning, then one at a county library handing out unemployment applications, followed by another at a testing site in Hialeah. He also planned to join DeSantis in announcing a hospital being established by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Around the same time as the DeSantis press conference in early afternoon, everyone in Miami-Dade County should receive another emergency text blast attributed to Gimenez. The mayor initially said the emergency blasts were “a little bit overboard.” But his name was added to subsequent blast alerts.
Frank Rollason, the county’s emergency management director, said he added the mayor’s name to the alerts after the initial, unattributed blasts created some confusion and even calls to police stations.
“We wanted it to come from the mayor because the first time we sent it out, people didn’t know where the hell it came from,” said Rollason, adding that the messages are federally regulated and must be legitimately related to public emergencies.
He said the text blasts, scheduled every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, are supposed to be concentrated in Miami-Dade County but appear to go as far south as Islamorada — which is in Monroe County but part of Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
Cam Savage, a spokesperson for Gimenez’s campaign, said Gimenez is just doing his job.
“The mayor hasn’t really entertained any thought of campaigning or the campaign at all since this has started,” Savage said.
“He’s a first responder. He has dealt with numerous crises.”
‘‘ THERE’S A LOT YOU CAN SAY ABOUT CARLOS GIMENEZ, BUT CRISES ARE ACTUALLY WHERE HE DOES WELL. Elnatan Rudolph, a Miami-based politics and communications strategist