Miami-Dade County Commission races,

Several races for MiamiDade County Commission seats appear headed for runoff elections in November after a historic primary night Tuesday where seven of 13 seats were contested, including five vacated by incumbents due to term limits.

With all but a few precincts reporting Election Day results at around 10 p.m., four of the seven commission races had no single candidate with more than 50% of the votes. To win outright in Tuesday’s primary, candidates needed a majority of votes. Otherwise, the two top votegetters will square off in a November runoff.

In District 9, Democratic State Rep. Kionne McGhee was well below the 50% threshold needed to win outright despite a double digit lead. Homestead City Councilman Elvis Maldonado led attorney Marlon Hill by a few hundred votes for second place with most precincts reporting.

Cindy Lerner and Raquel Regalado are headed for a runoff in District 7, with Lerner up by just a few percentage points. In District 5, incumbent Eileen Higgins led challenger

Renier Diaz de la Portilla by double digits but was a few points shy of an outright majority. And Miami City Commissioner Keon Hardemon was hovering just below 50% as he led second-place finisher Gepsie Metellus by more than 20 points.

“Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst,” Hardemon told the Miami Herald late Tuesday as he awaited the final tallies, looking to avoid a runoff. “I’ll be prepared to win in November,” he said.

In a closely watched race in District 1, Sybrina Fulton, the mother of the late Trayvon Martin, may fall just short against Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. After the final two precincts reported results around 10:45 p.m., Gilbert led Fulton by 1.3% with more than 33,000 votes counted. Some mail-in ballots had still not been counted, county officials said.

Voters approved term limits for the county commission eight years ago that are now triggering required departures from a board where incumbents rarely lose. Miami-Dade will also get a new mayor in November, with Carlos Gimenez termed out and running for Congress.

Below is a summary of the commission race results as reported by the county elections department.

DISTRICT 3

Hardemon was in front as he seeks to replace Commission Chairwoman Audrey Edmonson, who is termed out of office after 14 years representing a district that includes parts of downtown Miami and neighborhoods. Metellus, the director of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, came in second. Hardemon, 36, was first elected to the Miami City Commission in 2013. He previously ran against Edmonson for the county’s District 3 seat in 2012, losing in the runoff.

The district includes the Miami neighborhoods of Liberty City, Little Haiti, Wynwood and Allapattah, plus the villages of El Portal and Miami Shores. Minority groups dominate the area, where 45% of voters are Black and 33% Hispanic.

DISTRICT 5

Higgins led Diaz de la Portilla, with Miguel Soliman further behind in third place.

Higgins, 56, was elected to the county commission during a special election in 2018. She first defeated Alex Diaz de la Portilla, now a Miami city comissioner and her current rival’s brother, before beating Zoraida Barreiro in the runoff election.

Renier Diaz de la Portilla previously served as a state representative and MiamiDade School Board member. He and Higgins have attacked one another in political advertisements in the run up to Tuesday’s election.

DISTRICT 7

During a virtual victory party Tuesday night, Lerner said she was looking forward to the November runoff with Regalado. She thanked volunteers, contributors and voters.

“Just keep it up,” she said. “We’ll need more of that in November.”

Regalado, 46, is the daughter of former Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. She and her opponents are running to take the spot of another former Miami mayor, the term-limited Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who is running for county mayor. She ran for county mayor in 2016 and lost outgoing Mayor Gimenez.

Regalado, the mother of two teenagers with autism, said she will push for more vocational training and job placement for adults with disabilities if elected. For Lerner, a former mayor of Pinecrest and state representative, conducting a countywide audit of environmental issues is among her top priorities.

The district runs from Key Biscayne to Kendall, and includes parts of Miami, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Pinecrest and

South Miami.

Regalado said the turnout in the District 7 race “made history” with more than 45,000 residents voting. She said her campaign was “grateful for the support we received today.”

“We look forward to November and the opportunity to speak directly to voters once again regarding the issues that impact our community,” she said in a statement.

DISTRICT 9

McGhee, the outgoing House minority leader, held a double-digit lead over Hill and Maldonado, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

The winner will replace one of the county’s longestserving officials, Dennis Moss, who was first elected in 1993 and endorsed McGhee to take his place. Moss is departing due to term limits.

Transit is a key issue for Miami-Dade’s southernmost district, where residents were promised an extension of the Metrorail system almost two decades ago but have yet to see it. The county recently got approval to build a rapidtransit bus system through South Dade, but some District 9 candidates — including McGhee — say rail should take priority.

DISTRICT 11

Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez, who faced a challenge Tuesday from two candidates, appeared headed to an outright victory over former state representative Robert Asencio and Christhian Mancera.

The district includes unincorporated areas of west and southwest MiamiDade, including west Kendall, Kendale Lakes, Bent Tree, Lakes of the Meadows, and Country Walk.

Martinez, 62, has cumulatively held his seat for 16 years. He received criticism early on during the COVID-19 pandemic when he said he was “tired” of hearing about coronavirus cancellations during a March 11 emergency meeting.

DISTRICT 13

Former State Sen. Rene Garcia was headed to an overwhelming victory ahead of Adrian Jesus Jimenez in the District 13 election, with almost a 4-1 vote margin.

Garcia will replace Steve Bovo, Republican candidate for county mayor.

The district includes Hialeah and parts of Miami Lakes. Garcia, 46, is a lifelong Hialeah resident first elected to the city council there in 1997 at 23.

In 2000, García was elected to the Florida

House in the 110th District, which includes Hialeah and Miami Lakes. He held that post until 2008, when term limits forced him out, then was a state senator for eight years until term limits forced him out again in 2018.