Maurice Antonio Ferré was an American politician who served six terms as the Mayor of Miami. Ferré was the first Puerto Rican-born United States mayor and the first Latino Mayor of Miami. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2010 elections for the U.S. Senate seat for Florida vacated by Mel Martínez for the Democratic primary.
Xavier Louis Suarez is an American politician who was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami and was a Miami-Dade county commissioner.
Carlos Álvarez is a Cuban American politician, and the former mayor of Miami-Dade County. He was first elected mayor in 2004, and re-elected in 2008. His mayoralty ended in March 2011 after a recall election. In both mayoral elections, he listed his party as "No Party Preference", but an article in The Christian Science Monitor described him as a member of the Republican Party.
Joseph Xavier Carollo is a Cuban-American politician who served as mayor of Miami from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. Following his loss in the 2001 mayoral election, he served as Doral, Florida city manager from January 2013 until his firing in April 2014; he was reinstated in June 2017, then immediately resigned. He successfully ran for election to the Miami city commission in 2017.
Arthur E. "Art" Teele Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from the Republican Party. In the early 1980s, he served as the head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration from 1981 to 1983. Born into a wealthy black family in Florida, Teele received an excellent education and became an officer in the US Army, and later had a successful career in private practice and politics. The Miami Herald published claims of legal wrongdoing against Teele during his fight to have a conviction against him overturned, after which he killed himself. Posthumously, his case was appealed and his conviction was overturned, exonerating him of all charges.
Alejandro Díaz de la Portilla is a political consultant and former politician from Florida. A Republican, Díaz de la Portilla was a City of Miami Commissioner for District 1 and a member of the Florida Senate from 2000 to 2010, representing parts of Miami-Dade County. He also served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1994 until his election to the Senate.
Carlos Antonio Giménez is a Cuban-born American retired firefighter and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 28th congressional district. He was redistricted from Florida's 26th congressional district in 2022. A Republican, he served as mayor of Miami-Dade County from 2011 to 2020. He served as a Miami-Dade County Commissioner from 2003 to 2011, and was the fire chief of the City of Miami Fire Department.
Julio Robaina is a state representative from Florida. He was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2003 from District 117. He ran for Florida Senate from District 36, which was being vacated by Alex Diaz de la Portilla, losing to Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Alex's brother, in the Republican primary.
Esteban L. "Steve" Bovo Jr. is an American politician from Florida and the current mayor of Hialeah, Florida. Bovo previously served on the Hialeah City Council, in the Florida House of Representatives, and on the Miami-Dade County Commission. He ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2020, losing to Daniella Levine Cava. Prior to serving as an elected official, Bovo worked at the historic Hialeah Park as a marketing and advertising executive.
Wilfredo Gort de los Llanos is a Cuban-American politician who served as the 37th and acting Mayor of Miami from June to July 1996. Gort was a City of Miami Commissioner from 1993 to 2001 and again from 2010 to 2020.
Miguel Díaz de la Portilla is a Cuban-American attorney and politician from Florida. A Republican, he served in the Florida Senate from 2010 to 2016, representing parts of Miami, Coral Gables, and the surrounding area. Prior to that, he was a member of the Miami-Dade County Commission from 1993 to 2000.
Manny Díaz Jr. is an American politician serving as the 28th Education Commissioner of Florida. A Republican, Díaz was a member of the Florida Senate from 2018 to 2022, representing the 36th district, which encompasses the Hialeah area in northwest Miami-Dade County. He also served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2018, which encompassed parts of Hialeah and Northwest Miami-Dade County, Florida.
José Javier Rodríguez is an American politician and attorney from Florida serving as the Assistant Secretary for Employment & Training at the United States Department of Labor. A Democrat, he served one term in the Florida Senate from 2016 to 2020, representing Coral Gables, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Key Biscayne, and downtown Miami in Miami-Dade County. He previously served two terms in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 112th district in Miami-Dade County from 2012 until his election to the Senate.
Bryan Avila is an American Republican politician who currently serves as a member of the Florida Senate, representing the 39th District. He previously served in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 111th District, which includes parts of Miami and Hialeah in northeastern Miami-Dade County, since 2014. Avila will be term limited in 2022 and has announced his intention to run for Miami Dade County commission district 6.
Jean Monestime is an American politician, real estate businessman and member of the Miami-Dade County Commission since 2010. He is the first Haitian-American to serve as a Miami-Dade County commissioner, as well as the first to chair the commission. Monestime represents District 2 in northeast Miami-Dade County, which incorporates portions of North Miami, North Miami Beach and Biscayne Gardens, as well as the Miami neighborhoods of Little Haiti and Liberty City.
Alfredo J. "Freddy” Balsera is an American political consultant, founder of Balsera Communications, who served as Hispanic Media Advisor for Barack Obama during the latter's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 as well as other Democratic party campaigns.
The 2020 Miami-Dade County mayoral election was held on November 3, 2020, to determine the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida. County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava defeated fellow commissioner Esteban Bovo. Incumbent Mayor Carlos A. Giménez, first elected in 2011, was term-limited; instead running for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Florida's 26th congressional district.
Daniella Levine Cava is an American lawyer, social worker, and politician who has served as the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida since 2020. Previously, she was a Miami-Dade County Commissioner from 2014 until her election as mayor in 2020. She handily won re-election in 2024. She is the first woman and the first person of Jewish descent to serve as mayor of Miami-Dade County.
The 1996 Metro-Dade County mayoral election took place on September 1, 1996. It was the first election in the Metro Dade County area since the election of Stephen P. Clark. The election pitted various well-known and popular figures in the Miami-Dade area. Maurice Ferre and Xavier Suarez and former rivals in the 1987 Miami Mayor race, Arthur Teele and young former Hialeah City Councilman Alex Penelas along with several other minor candidates. County Commissioners Arthur Teele and Alex Penelas went on to the run-off. Penelas's victory made him the first Cuban-American mayor in Dade County and as of 2020, the only Democrat Cuban-American. Penelas also has the distinction of being the youngest mayor elected in Miami Dade County history at the age of 34. Arthur Teele was the first African American man to run for Dade County mayor.
Renier Díaz de la Portilla was a member of the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican from 2000 to 2002 for District 115.
