Republican candidates ride Trump wave to victories up and down Miami-Dade’s ballot
The GOP rode a red wave in Miami-Dade County created by a massive turnout for former president Donald Trump that underscored victories up and down the ballot for Republican candidates.
In Florida's most populous county, voters handed Trump a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, and with it, a string of wins for local offices such as sheriff, elections supervisor and property appraiser.
For property appraiser, voters chose former Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. With Trump's endorsement, Rosanna "Rosie" Cordero-Stutz won a widely watched race for sheriff , the first election for sheriff since the 1960s. Republican state Rep. Alina Garcia won the race for supervisor of elections . Business owner Dariel Fernandez won his race for tax collector .
Even in competitive Florida House races, incumbent Republicans Fabian Basabe and Vicki Lopez kept their seats Tuesday night.
"Today, our community has spoken. They have voted for their families, their livelihoods, and a future that promises to thrive under conservative leadership," said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, a prominent local GOP politician who was endorsed by Trump when he won his seat on the County Commission. "This is more than a victory — it's a realignment that demonstrates that Miami-Dade voters agree with the principles of the Republican Party: lower taxes, less government and more freedom!"
Christian Ulvert, a leading Democratic campaign manager in Miami-Dade, saw his four Democratic clients lose their countywide races in partisan elections where the margins were close to what Trump posted in Miami-Dade. While both parties mostly matched their 2020 turnout levels, steady increases in GOP voter registration in Miami-Dade and declines for Democrats had Republicans up by about 3 percentage points in ballots cast on Election Day. The Republican margins showed independent voters broke heavily for Republicans, a point Ulvert emphasized in his remarks to a dejected crowd at an election night event in Coral Gables.
"We have work to do in Miami-Dade County," he said. "Voters sent a message."
After, Ulvert pointed to Trump's commanding win of Florida as evidence of a broader issue with the Democratic Party in the Sunshine State. "It's not just a Miami-Dade problem. It's a statewide problem," he said.
Republicans dominated local congressional races in districts representing Miami-Dade and the Keys, with U.S. Reps. María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez cruising to reelection.
"Florida is rejecting the far-left policies," said Diaz-Balart, who was celebrating at popular Cuban eatery Versailles with fellow GOP candidates.
"Miami-Dade County was always a Democrat stronghold," he told the Miami Herald. "The reality is the Democratic Party has gone so dramatically far left that it's a pretty dramatic rejection, I think, of those policies."
Even after candidates left Versailles, a traditional gathering place for the Cuban exile community that has increasingly swung toward the right, a huge Cuban flag waved while car horns blared when Trump was projected to win Florida. The words "socialism" and "communism" were repeatedly heard as the crowd celebrated "their deaths" to the sound of salsa music.
The only Democrats who won partisan seats, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson and state Rep. Kevin Chambliss, were in heavily blue districts.
