Is Suarez a rising GOP star with D.C. potential? Depends who you ask
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is starting to show his political ambition beyond the city, but Republican politics could make his path to higher office difficult to predict.
A chat over cafecito between Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and potential 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley has sparked rumors he could have a chance to be on the GOP ticket — and questions of whether the mayor’s politics fit into the Republican party’s future platform.
Already the subject of flattering media coverage related to his recruitment of tech startups to Miami, the 43-year-old Cuban-American mayor has entertained the conjecture about his future, even if it somewhat overshadows his current reelection campaign. In the weeks since his City Hall meeting with Haley, a former South Carolina governor and member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Suarez has told Politico “I would never say never,” and The New York Times he “wouldn’t say no” if asked to join a presidential ticket.
“I don’t know if there’s any resident in the city of Miami who would say no to the opportunity to be vice president of the United States,” Suarez said in an interview.
Still, while Suarez is basking in a burgeoning narrative that he could be a player in national Republican politics — he says his centrist tendencies could serve the party well — others question his
Republican credentials and doubt someone with a track record of voting against Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis can survive a partisan race.
“His Republican credentials are not transferable or marketable in a Republican Party primary. They’re just not,” said David Custin, a veteran political consultant who has worked with Suarez in the past. “It’s not credible for anybody to say or think that he can win in a Republican primary.”
Custin said Suarez could be a powerhouse in local nonpartisan politics, suggesting he could mount a strong run at Miami-Dade mayor in the future. But Custin said Suarez’s credibility with Republicans was damaged when he told the Herald he would vote for Andrew Gillum in the 2018 gubernatorial election, and again when he openly disagreed with Trump and DeSantis on their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The consultant — who helped run state House races for former GOP House Speaker Jose Oliva, who once called Suarez’s vote for Gillum “tragically ignorant” — praised Suarez’s performance as a mayor and fundraiser. But he said Suarez was a Republican-in-name-only whose profile in the party would be overshadowed by competitors, including DeSantis, whom many expect will run for higher office.
Indeed, Suarez doesn’t have the most comfortable place in the Florida GOP. DeSantis stopped answering his calls after the mayor criticized the governor for curtailing cities’ abilities to enforce COVID restrictions. And when Suarez traveled to Tallahassee to support a bill that would regulate cryptocurrency in February, he kept his meetings with lawmakers quiet in case his involvement might hurt the bill’s chances. The bill stalled out in committee.
But Suarez — whom Politico described as a “Trump-rejecting Florida Republican who has a plan to fix the GOP” — doesn’t talk about fitting the mold in a Trump-centric Republican Party. And he does have his strengths.
Giancarlo Sopo, a former Democratic Hispanic media strategist from Miami who renounced his party affiliation and later helped the 2020 Trump campaign make big gains with Latino voters, said the mayor has potential to grow into a politician who could succeed in Tallahassee or Washington, drawing a parallel with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. who ran for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
From a party-wide perspective, Sopo, now living in Texas, said he sees Suarez as a potentially effective messenger who could reach younger, Englishdominant Hispanics who live in big cities and have nuanced political views.
“He should be the face in those big cities,” Sopo said.
To be sure, Suarez’s profile has grown in recent months, going back to when he tested positive for COVID-19 and continuing with his media campaign to lure tech investors to Miami. In February, President Joe Biden invited him to the Oval Office to talk about coronavirus relief programs.
Suarez said he doesn’t see himself running for Congress or Senate, but a more executive position like governor might interest him. In any of those cases, he’d have to mount a partisan campaign for the first time. The mayor said the GOP should focus on solutions more than partisan fights, pointing to issues where he said conservatives could fare better with a more nuanced platform.
“I think the Republican party has to be the party of pro-environment. It has to be a party of pro-immigration,” Suarez said. “They should be winning topics.”
Nuance, Sopo said, would appeal to voters in areas nationally where Republicans have lost ground.
“I think people realize that he’s a mayor of a city that’s center-left and that he needs to be strategic,” Sopo said. “He’s going to approach politics form a different angle than Republican politicians that come from these deep red communities.”
Some agree that if Republicans need a dynamic pitchman more than a candidate, the mayor might fit the bill. Suarez’s tech push has shown his affinity for drumming up hype — even if he has limited power. He holds a largely ceremonial role at City Hall, with no vote on the commission and only the power of influence.
René Garcia, a MiamiDade County commissioner and chairman of the county GOP, said Suarez has shown he can wield influence effectively in his current role. But Garcia said Suarez’s appeal as a candidate might be limited, especially in some of Florida’s most conservative corners.
“While he’s transformative and transcending in Miami-Dade County, he would have more difficulty statewide,” Garcia said.
In some ways, Suarez has cut a similar path to former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Though
Diaz is a Democrat, both are attorneys who sought out leadership positions through the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where Suarez will be president next year, assuming he’s reelected in November. Diaz, currently the chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, flirted with a statewide run but never pulled the trigger.
Suarez said the speculation shouldn’t turn off voters in this year’s mayoral race, which he insists is his primary focus. He said he’s still got city issues to tackle, from restoring aging cultural facilities to selling Miami as a future tech hub.
Were Suarez to be reelected and then run for higher office during his second four-year term, he would have to resign his City Hall post to run. But, while Suarez said he felt flattered to be even mentioned in the conversation, he also said he’s currently focused on being mayor and running for reelection.
“I don’t know. It’s so far away,” he said of the next presidential race. “Right now, I’m focused on what I’m doing.”