Miami Method
The mayor of the city of Miami, Francis Suarez, announced last week that he is running for president of the United States as a Republican.
Some Republicans noted that he has voted for Democrats quite recently…including against Ron DeSantis for governor in 2022 and Donald Trump for president in 2020. Democrats have criticized him since his position as Miami mayor is part-time and largely ceremonial.
So why is he in the race? I’ll take him at his word that he can win, and that his experience is just what the country needs.
But he might also be in the race as a spoiler.
Reports from earlier this year noted that 2016 Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway had been meeting with Suarez; she then made quite flattering public statements about him. Rumors circulated that perhaps she was vetting him as a possible Trump vice presidential nominee, or that he was laying the groundwork for higher office but not president.
So if you really want to get all conspiratorial…perhaps he’s been encouraged to get into the race to help Trump and hurt DeSantis. Again, I’ll take him at his word that he’s in it to win it…but to this point anyway, every candidate that comes into the race makes it harder for any one challenger to unseat Trump. And who better to poke at DeSantis—so far, the chief challenger—than a mayor from his own state?
It takes more than a hometown announcement and a speech at the Reagan Library to mount a campaign, and we’ll be sure to invite Mayor Suarez on as we have all other candidates so you all here in the first state to choose hear what he has to say .
No sitting mayor has ever been elected president. We’ll see if Suarez is the first…or if his running leads to other outcomes.
