Tallahassee tiptoes toward Trump’s map makeover
Ladra has seen some shameless legislative antics in her day — and trust me, that bar is high — but what happened again Wednesday in Tallahassee deserves its own little trophy shaped like a locked microphone.
For the second meeting in a row, the Florida House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting gathered, smiled for the cameras, fidgeted with their binders… and then refused to hear a single word from the public. Not from voters. Not from advocates. Not even from the redistricting nerds who flew or drove hours to stand at the podium and tell lawmakers what the process actually requires under the Florida Constitution.
Nada. Cero. Muzzled. It didn’t matter if dozens of Floridians — people who drove hours from Miami, Tampa and the Florida Keys to get to the state capitol and talk to their representative government — got stuck in the peanut gallery like extras on a silent-film set.
Because when Donald Trump says jump, Tallahassee asks, “How many districts?”
Across the country, President Trump has been pressuring Republicans to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms — even in states like Florida, where the constitution very clearly says maps cannot be drawn for partisan advantage. You know, that pesky “Fair Districts” amendment voters passed so overwhelmingly that even the legislature pretends to respect it?
But that didn’t stop Orlando Democrat State Rep. Bruce Antone from trying to pierce the fog of denial. During a presentation from a redistricting expert, Antone pointed at the elephant in the room: “There’s been some statements made that if we redraw districts, they are intended to favor a particular party,” Antone started. “What are your thoughts on that, as we talk about the potential for redistricting this time around?”
Committee Chairman Mike “The Rover” Redondo — Miami’s own rising star in the “hear no evil, see no evil, ignore all inconvenient questions” caucus — shut him down faster than you can say “gerrymander.”
“We’re talking about statements by unknown folks and hypotheticals,” snapped Redondo. “Let’s try to keep it to the presentation.”
Translation: Stay in your lane, bro.
In the first meeting last week, Redondo — who represents District 118, which includes the Kendall-Tamiami area, Sunset Corners, and parts of Southwest Miami-Dade — said it was more of a “listening and learning session,” and that is why there was no public comment. He did not have an excuse this time.
Read related: In House 118 special election, 1st timer Republican Mike Redondo keeps it red
Here’s what makes this whole charade even more brazen: In the 2021–2022 redistricting cycle — you know, the normal one — lawmakers actually let people speak. They hosted hearings around the state. They took public testimony before proposed maps were introduced. ¡Imagínate!
But this committee? They’re sprinting through a mid-decade redistricting effort — something already legally suspect — while shutting out the very people whose representation is on the line. Decades of precedent? Pfft. Who needs that.
The lawsuit is almost certain. Like what happened in Miami in 2023 when the city commission also tried to silence the public as they carved up the districts to favor the incumbents.
Abdelilah Skhir, senior strategist at the ACLU of Florida, told the press in Tallahassee that this was unprecedented.
“When people travel hours to participate and they aren’t even given a chance to speak,” he said, “it shatters transparency and trust in this process.”
Ladra would add that it also confirms what everyone already suspects: the fix is in.
After Redondo banged the gavel and ended the meeting without opening public comment at all, a coalition of voting-rights groups unloaded — and honestly, they didn’t hold back. Their message: This is democracy dying in silence.
Florida For All Political Director Amina Spahić said lawmakers were serving “powerful interests and mega-donors who bankroll their campaigns,” instead of the communities they are supposed to represent.
“Redistricting has become the tool that supercharges corporate power, carving districts that protect politicians instead of communities,” she said. “And today, for the second time, they shut out public comment to keep Floridians from speaking up.”
Read related: Miami redistricting map is thrown out again, ACLU’s map is in for now
Jonathan Webber, Florida policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, warned that the public’s presence was powerful — but meaningless if lawmakers refuse to hear them.
Equal Ground’s Genesis Robinson was even more blunt. “It is shameful and shows how little they value their constituents,” Robinson said in a statement. “If lawmakers are going to advance a process that threatens people’s voting rights, the very least they can do is give them an opportunity to speak and voice their position. We will not sit by and let democracy die in silence.”
And League of Women Voters Florida president Jessica Lowe-Minor reminded lawmakers there’s “no compelling reason” to redraw maps right now. “The people of Florida deserve better than a rush job done behind closed doors.”
They join a majority of Floridians who don’t want this.  A new poll shows 55% of Sunshine State voters oppose revisiting the maps now. That includes a plurality of Trump voters.
But that didn’t stop Redondo from ignoring the dozens of people in the room who came to put those objections on the record. Or the voting-rights groups who have warned — repeatedly — that mid-decade redistricting for partisan gain would violate the state Constitution.
“The [first] meeting was shockingly brief and insulting,” said Jackie Azis, the president of the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg area. She was there. She wrote an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times about the frustrating experience. “These same legislators who muted our voices at the meeting are the same decision makers trying to mute our voting power. We will not be deterred. We will not be silenced.”
Read related: Miami commission doesn’t want public comment or input on new redistricting
And yet, there we were again last week. Another meeting. Another locked mic. Another quiet little step toward a political map cooked behind closed doors.
When democracy is healthy, lawmakers open the doors wide. They ask people what they think. They let the public yell, cry, complain, testify, and hold them accountable.
When democracy is sick, politicians hide the ball.
Wednesday, the House Redistricting Committee, with eight Republicans and three Democrat legislators, didn’t just hide the ball. They locked it in a safe, swallowed the key, and told Floridians to sit quietly in the back and behave.
Calladitos se ven mas bonito.
Ladra will keep shining a light on this process. Even if Redondo won’t let anyone else speak.
Don’t just clutch your pearls and shake your heads at Tallahassee’s latest power grab. Pick up the phone. Open your laptop. Take five damn minutes and call, write, and email your state House rep and state senator and tell them — plainly, loudly, and with all the Miami spice you can muster — to stop cheating, stop breaking the law and say no to mid-decade redistricting.
Use the “Find Your Representative” tool at flhouse.gov and hit them where it counts: their inboxes. Urge them to vote down any attempt to redraw Florida’s congressional map before the 2030 Census. Remind them that partisan gerrymandering isn’t just slimy — it’s unconstitutional under the Fair Districts Amendments that Florida voters, with overwhelming support, put into our state constitution.
Tell them Floridians didn’t fight for fair districts just to watch politicians ignore the law the moment Trump whistles. We expect our electeds to follow the constitution — our constitution — and respect the will of the people who put them in office.

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Miami politics is never just about the people on the ballot. In fact, half the drama is happening off the ballot.
Another election cycle has come and gone, leaving behind the usual debris field of broken signs, bruised egos, and consultants still waiting to get paid. And while everyone is busy dissecting the candidates and their margins and their margins of victory in Miami, Hialeah and Miami Beach, Ladra is here for the real autopsy: the winners and losers who never appear on the ballot but are pulling strings, pushing narratives, or just getting run over by the political pachanga.
The consultants, the machines, the dynasties, the wannabes, the trolls, the institutions, and the voters (bless their tired souls).
Read related: ‘Winners & Losers’ from the Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah elections
So grab your cortadito — heavy on the espuma — because while some candidates are still picking pastelito crumbs off their dignity, Ladra is here with this cycle’s MVPs and DOA’s, which has become a Political Cortadito tradition.
AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Political and media consultants Christian Ulvert and Michael Worley, who often work together, and went three for three Tuesday with wins for Eileen Higgins in the Miami mayoral race, Rolando Escalona‘s runoff in the Miami D3 commission contest, and Monica Matteo-Salinas in the Miami Beach commission runoff. Campaign veteran Emiliano Antuñez took Escalona to the runoff and “he’s a machine,” the commissioner-elect said. Ecalona’s win was particularly sweet since he beat former Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo, who has significant name recognition compared to the self-described “nobody.” And for Ulvert, who made the losers column last year after he lost all five Miami-Dade constitutional seats, it shows he is still bouncing back.
Democrats. Some might be calling in sick today, but they’re just still celebrating. Tuesday night’s election results in both Miami and Miami Beach were rousing successes. Hialeah is a throwaway for them. But they got Higgins elected the first Democrat mayor in Miami in almost 30 years — and by almost 20 points — and Matteo-Salinas elected in Miami Beach by a whopping 42 points. They attracted big-name, national blue star power from the likes of Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Congressman Rahm Emanuel, a former White House official under Barack Obama. And they showed that with national attention (and money), they can flip traditionally red seats. All they have to do now is lose that momentum, like they always do.
Former Joe Carollo district aide Steven Miro, who filed a whistleblower suit against his ex boss after he said he was fired in retaliation for reporting that the commissioner used his office and public dollars to campaign for Alex Diaz de la Portilla when the latter was running for county commission. The scandal became known as Paellagate and Miro eventually settled out of court for a tidy sum. Fast forward to this election cycle, where helped Escalona — a lot. It was personal for him. We might want to put other former Carollo staffers on the list. Let’s make that the Anybody-But-Joe coalition. Anyone who ever tangled with the brothers Carollo — from activists to former staff to political rivals who still have PTSD — got a little karmic dopamine hit this week. Whether you call it political maturity or simply exhaustion, it’s a win.
Speaking of which… Bill Fuller, one of the owners of Ball and Chain, which was targeted and eventually shut down by Joe Carollo’s weaponization of city departments — police, code enforcement, city attorney — for having had an event for his political opponent in 2017. The two won a jury trial in 2023 for $63.5 million in damages and have already gotten a $12.5 million settlement from the city for its part. But Tuesday’s results were like the cherry on top. “It’s been eight years of torture and harassment,” Fuller told TV cameras at Tuesday night’s victory party for Escalona, which he hosted.
Hialeah Mayor Elect Bryan Calvo, who wasn’t on the ballot this cycle but was able to flex already, throwing his brand new mayoral weight behind two candidates in the council runoffs who both won. Sure, they weren’t on his original slate, but they did much better in their second go-around. Gelien Perez, who worked for the city’s Human Resources Department, was on former Councilman Jesus Tundidor‘s slate when she got 40.5% of the vote Nov. 4 and got a whopping 80% against Jessica Castillo, who works in medical insurance sales, in the Group 3 runoff. In the Group 5 race, university student William “Willy” Marrero — the only candidate on outgoing Interim Mayor Jacqueline García-Roves’ slate who didn’t lose Nov. 4 — got 25% while the second place finisher got 23% last month to make it into the second round. This time, Marrero, who now replaces Calvo as the youngest council member ever elected in the City of Progress, got 71% against. But if you see a smile on Bryan’s face, you know why.
Ditto for Miami Beach Commissioners Alex Fernandez and Laura Dominguez, who backed Matteo-Salinas and can now form a tidy little alliance over in that city.
Downtown developers who might find a friendly Miami City Hall now that Eileen “Build More Housing” Higgins is mayor. Her campaign was heavily funded by development interests and she doesn’t have the best track record in that department, even voting in favor of rebuilding the county’s waste incinerator, which should have cost her environmental votes but didn’t.
Lobbyist Manuel “Manny” Prieguez, the former state rep with his finger on the pulse at City Hall. First, he backed Commissioner Miguel Gabela in his win two years ago. This time, he was behind Rolando Escalona from Day One, making hundreds of calls to raise funds and blast critics intermittently. His influence at the city has practically doubled from one day to the next.

NOW, THE LOSERS ARE:

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Did you feel the shockwave? The Carollo era is officially over. Kaput. Finito. Ciao pescao.
Rolando Escalona — the 34-year-old restaurant manager whose political résumé could fit on the back of a Sexy Fish cocktail napkin — just beat former Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo in Miami’s District 3 commission runoff, ending four decades of one Carollo or another haunting Little Havana like a family curse.
This wasn’t just a loss. This was an exorcism.
Five weeks ago, in the general election, Frank Carollo led the first round Nov. 4 with a comfy 38%. Escalona came in a distant second at 17% — barely edging out a field of six other hopefuls who all vowed they weren’t Carollo but couldn’t convince voters they were the one to take him out.
But that was before the runoff. Before residents had five full weeks to remember every lawsuit, every controversy, and every cringe-inducing meltdown courtesy of the candidate’s older brother, termed out Commissioner Joe Carollo, who got booted from the mayor’s race last month with a humiliating fourth-place finish.
It was also before political consultant extraordinaire Christian Ulvert really took over the Espinosa campaign after the first round.
Read related: Rolando Escalona picks up two anti-Carollo endorsements in Miami D3 race
So when the first votes flashed up on the screens at the Tower Hotel — yes, Bill Fuller’s Tower Hotel, the ultimate Carollo revenge venue — the room of a couple dozen die-hard supporters erupted. The include a few members of the Miami Young Republicans, who are balding and in their 40s and, Ladra suspects, were angling for a city job. Escalona was wiping tears, trying to stay composed, while grown men whispered “Felicidades” into his ear like a secret code.
When the final precinct dropped, the place shook like Cuba after a 7.0. Even the candidate couldn’t believe it. He said that he got discouraged when he saw the number of voters saying hi to Frank Carollo and hugging him and kissing him on the check at the polling place at Jose Marti Park.
“I knew some of these people, I saw them at their homes. But I didn’t have a relationship with these people,” Escalona told Political Cortadito Wednesday morning, after the realization of his victory actually struck him, he said. “Right there, I told my mom, ‘I think we lost.’ Because they have a name that everybody over 60 loves.”
Well, apparently not everybody.
“I think it works both way. They had the name recognition, but at the same time there was a lot of negative associated with it,” Escalona told Ladra.
The Carollo camp apparently knew that and panicked, sending misleading mailers in the last rally, with Escalona pictured with Donald Trump and the words “Rolando is ready to bring Trump’s policies to the city of Miami and drill, drill, drill.” It was sent only to Dems — trying to scare them off.
Thankfully, they didn’t bite. And Escalona was focused on the NPAs anyway. Ladra can’t wait to see the breakdown by party and voter age.

Now, Frank — who only won the early voting race — is out too. And, thanks to lifetime term limits voters passed on Nov. 4, neither brother can claw their way back onto a Miami ballot ever again. Well, Frank can run for mayor — but let’s not tell him, okay?
District 3 — once the most Carollo place on Earth — just slammed the door shut behind them.
“It’s the end of the Carollo reign,” Escalona told the Herald. Ladra would only add: Por fin.
Read related: Miami voters sue to keep Frank Carollo off the runoff ballot after term-limit win
This race wasn’t just decided at the ballot box. It was a legal novela — because nothing happens in Miami without a judge. Escalona survived a bizarre residency challenge in October that involved a three-hour trial, multiple leases, and even his Amazon order history. Frank Carollo only stayed on the ballot because a judge ruled removing him would “disenfranchise voters,” even after residents argued the new lifetime term limits barred him.
Those plaintiffs? They were already appealing. They were so sick of the Carollo saga, they were ready to take the fight all the way to SCOTUS if they had to.
One of them, Victor Milanes, hugged Escalona at the victory party and said, “We are tired of it… We did everything we could to make sure the system changes.”
Translation: Se acabó el abuso.
And Bill Fuller wasn’t just hosting an election night each party. He was baptizing a new political era at the scene of his greatest courtroom victory.
Fuller and partner Martin Pinilla — owners of Ball & Chain — won a $63.5 million verdict against Joe Carollo for weaponizing the city government against them. The City of Miami later settled its part of the case for $12.5 million. That’s your tax dollars, by the way.
“This feels like the ultimate chapter in redemption,” Fuller said after he gave Escalona a full bear hug.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses appeal on $63.5 million jury award
But who is Rolando Escalona? Even voters admit they don’t know much about him yet. All they know is he isn’t a Carollo, which seems to have been the magic password to City Hall this year.
His story is compelling. He came from Cuba 11 years ago and worked his way up the restaurant business — bussing tables, running food, waiting, managing — until he became general manager of Sexy Fish, a popular touristy eatery in downtown Miami. Meanwhile, he got political science degree from Florida International University in 2023 and a real estate license. And he became a father of twins during the campaign.
According to his campaign finance reports, Escalona raised about $110,000 — peanuts compared to Carollo’s $501,000 war chest — and still won comfortably.
“Nothing has been given to me,” Escalona says. And honestly, Miami loves a bootstrap story almost as much as it loves a corruption scandal.
Just how long will Miami’s newest commissioner keep his shine? Escalona campaigned on transparency (a novelty in District 3), better basic services (good luck), lower taxes for seniors, fixing the permitting disaster, adding affordable housing, public safety and economic development and real fiscal responsibility. Whether he delivers, we’ll find out.
He says he’s quitting Sexy Fish to focus on the job full time, but Ladra suspects he will still dabble in real estate.
“I’m not a politician. I have never been in politics,” Escalona told Political Cortadito. “I genuinely want to work to make the city of Miami a better place. I’m going to work for the residents of District 3 and Miami and I do’t care if they’re Democrat or Republican or neither.
“We’re done with that.”
Read related: Judge: Rolando Escalona belongs on Miami ballot for D3 commissioner
With Escalona’s win, four out of five commissioners are first-termers. Chairwoman Christine King is now the “senior member” with a whopping four years under her belt. Ralph Rosado joked he’s no longer the youngest on the dais. Commissioner Miguel Gabela declared, “The old guard is gone.”
Of course, none of them arrived at the watch party until they knew the Carollos were safely gone for good.
For the first time in forever, Miami has a commission without the Carollo gravitational pull.
“I’m very, very, very grateful to the residents of my district for giving a nobody a chance,” Escalona told Ladra. “And I will tell you, I will work very hard for them every day.”
Yes, we’ll see who Escalona really is soon enough. We’ll see who starts whispering in his ear. We’ll see which developer buys him a cafecito first. We’ll see who he hires. We’ll see if his “fresh start” survives his first zoning meeting.
But on Wednesday, District 3 voters are celebrating that they pulled off something people said was impossible: They sent Frank Carollo packing. They sealed the dynasty’s tomb. They chose the newcomer with tears in his eyes over the accountant with 40 years of baggage.
And Ladra has just one thing to say: ¡Por fin, Little Havana! Por fin.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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They also believe it has wider electoral ramifications
Ay, Miami. After years of corruption fatigue, half-baked strongman cosplay, and enough FBI whispers to fill a telenovela season, voters finally did something different Tuesday: They elected Eileen Higgins, the first Democrat mayor in the city in almost 30 years and the first female mayor ever.
Yes, that Eileen — the transit nerd, the policy wonk, the woman who once got laughed at for caring too much about things like bus shelters and sidewalks. Tonight, she’s getting the last laugh. And the Democrats? Dios mío… they are ecstatic.
You can practically hear the champagne corks popping from the Miami-Dade DEC office all the way to Washington. After all, this is a blue win in the capital of Florida MAGAstan.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
Miami hasn’t exactly been friendly territory for Democrats lately. The county turned red. The state turned ruby red. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis struts around like a future dictator-in-waiting, snatching municipal airstrips and holding up House district elections. Republicans ran City Hall like a private members-only club, complete with luxury perks, secret backdoor meetings, and that little FBI inconvenience.
But after Tuesday? Democrats get to say Miami just flipped its biggest citywide seat from GOP hands to a Democrat — and they’re already framing it as the first crack in the Republican façade, because Higgins came in 18 points ahead of the MAGA-backed former city manager, Emilio Gonzalez, who even had President Donald Trump‘s endorsement. Lotta good that did.
“This is the beginning of the Miami comeback,” one Democratic strategist told Ladra, practically floating two inches off the ground. “Higgins winning shows that voters are tired of the corruption circus and ready for actual governance again.”
Honestly, they are acting like Noche Buena came early.
Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley was practically dancing in place as she declared that Higgins didn’t just win — she made history. First woman ever elected Mayor of Miami, first Democrat in the big chair since the Clinton years.
Okay, let’s be honest: the bar was low. The last few years at Miami City Hall have been a piñata full of ethics lapses, shady alliances and Sunshine violations. You smack one politician and three new investigations fall out. But Kelley was also celebrating a win across the causeway as Monica Matteo-Salinas cruised into her Miami Beach commission seat by double digits.
It’s a two-city blue splash the Dems are already calling “the start of a wave.” At the very least, it’s a sign of what unprecedented involvement by the national and state party in a municipal race can do.
Read related: Monica Matteo-Salinas coasts to big win in Miami Beach commission runoff
Kelley bragged that during the five-week runoff sprint, every level of the party — national, state, local — suddenly remembered Miami-Dade existed and threw bodies, money, and strategy at it. The new county party leadership, elected just last year, has apparently been grinding: more than 300,000 calls to re-enroll vote-by-mail voters, 64,000 more to drag people to the polls, countless door-knocking shifts, millions of digital impressions, and a social media footprint bigger than anything they’ve managed in a decade.
According to the Dems, Higgins and Matteo-Salinas didn’t win because of party machinery alone — they won because they tapped into what residents have been begging for: honesty in government, real affordability solutions, safer streets, and stability for small businesses living under the whiplash of what Kelley bluntly calls “Trump’s disastrous economy.”
And flipping a seat the GOP held for more than 30 years? The Democrats are treating that as a countywide thunderclap. A sign that Miami-Dade is not, in fact, the MAGA fortress Trump world keeps pretending it is.
Kelley even aimed a warning shot at Tallahassee and the Trump-aligned mapmakers sharpening their pencils for mid-decade redistricting. If they think they can carve out safe GOP congressional seats here, she says, they’re delusional — and risking even angrier voters. The 2024 dip, according to her, was a “blip, not a trend.”
Democrats are calling this race a blueprint for 2026, pretending they’ve cracked the code for Florida again. They haven’t, but let them have the moment. They’ll say that a good candidate who isn’t afraid of retail politics can still win. They’ll say the GOP’s Miami machine is vulnerable. They’ll say local issues — transit, affordability, homelessness — cut through the partisan fog.
In other words: “See? We can win again. We just need a city drowning in corruption, a fed-up electorate, and a candidate with a political machine and name recognition.”
Said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried: “Tonight’s victory shows that the pendulum is swinging in our favor and that when we commit to relentless, year-round organizing and invest in a long-term strategic field program, we can, in fact, win.”
Kelley’s closing message was also a warning shot: “This election underscores a fundamental truth: Miami-Dade Democrats are in a strong position to deliver for residents who are exhausted by Trump-created chaos: ICE raids; mass, indiscriminate deportations; economic unpredictability, the authoritarian impulses, and Congressional enablers like Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart who continue to harm communities across the county.”
Yep. She named names.
“We are building the infrastructure needed to give every Democrat running a chance, and will further ramp up the efforts that led to this success, starting now and we invite voters across Miami-Dade to join us,” Kelley added.
In other words, Democratic leaders will frame this as a mandate for ethics reform, for transparency, for housing affordability and to unwind the mess that the last administration left behind. Higgins is going to walk into City Hall one day soon and find a stack of unresolved investigations, a few “missing” documents, and at least one office still smelling like burnt coffee and desperation.
But for the party, this is a fresh start narrative. A rebirth. A phoenix-from-the-ashes moment.
With 2026 looming, the national folks are hungry for any win south of Jacksonville. Miami electing a Democrat for mayor? That’s catnip.
But we not only have statements from the DNC and strategists about “momentum in Florida,” and confetti GIFs on X from every Democrat who suddenly remembers Miami exists, we also already have the shouts of “leftist” and “globalist” in online forums and the fear mongering that Miami has gone full blown communista.
And that is also going to get louder in coming days.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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Some will say that Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins won the hyper partisan Miami mayoral race that ended Tuesday. But others might say that former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez lost it.
The official tally was 59% to 41% — an 18-point lead that Democrats statewide and nationwide celebrated as a bellwether to Miami’s officially partisan 2026 races (more on that later). And, yeah, Higgins got a lot of support on the ground from the Democratic National Committee and a PR boost from big, national, blue stars like Pete Buttigieg, and Congressman Rahm Emanuel and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
Make no mistake, though: Gonzalez definitely underperformed. Certainly because Republican voters underperformed. And maybe also because the Republican Party, at the national level, underperformed. There were no national phone banks. No big RNC money.
If Gonzalez thought the cavalry was coming, he misjudged.
The writing was on the wall as early as the first round Nov. 4, when Higgins came in first in a field of 13, but with 17 points over Gonzalez in the number two spot. And since absentee voting began weeks ago by mail, Democrats kept a turnout advantage. Republican voters did better in early voting, but only by a little bit. And Higgins still won that category.
Democrats ended with a 3,000-vote lead. And if we add NPAs, who tend to vote more blue than red, they doubled the number of GOP voters.
But it didn’t have to go this way. And some could argue that this was Emilio’s race to lose.
The former director of Miami International Airport got a gift last summer when the city commission moved the election to 2026, basically cancelling the mayor’s race and two commission race and giving everybody an extra year in office. You get a year. And you get a year. And you get a year.
Gonzalez was the only mayoral candidate who sued the city to stop them from doing that, arguing that the commission could not make that change without taking it to voters first. A judge agreed. The city appealed. Gonzalez won again. The city asked for a rehearing. The judges said GTFOH.
The amount of earned media he got from that process — the saving of the people’s voice — was any political consultant’s dream. Gonzalez was seen as a hero. He built a lot of good will on that.
Read related: Third DCA says no, again; Miami loses third try to cancel November elections
He could have run a race on an anti-corruption, pro-democracy, clean-up-City-Hall platform and won. But he threw it all away when he turned to embrace MAGA instead.
Ladra likes Gonzalez. He’s smart and scrappy. He is not the typical Miami Trumpista. But, early on, he took on the mantle of the GOP candidate with the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Ted Freaking Cruz from Texas and then the president himself. Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account twice urging voters to pick Gonzalez.
And maybe he had to motivate his base.
But maybe he also went too far. A Saturday caravan through the streets of Little Havana with Alex Otaola too far.
Reached Tuesday evening at his watch party, Gonzalez — who got into the runoff on Nov. 4 over several political veterans — was still yapping it up with friends and supporters. And it seemed he wouldn’t really do anything differently.
Read related: Miami’s mayoral race has gone full partisan – just like Ladra warned
“We started from zero. We self-funded, had no party money, and this was kind of an insurgent movement,” the retired Army colonel told Political Cortadito. “If I had been established, it would have been different.”
Maybe. But it might also have been different if he had danced to a non-partisan beat.
On X, Gonzalez thanked “the thousands of Miami residents who stood with us for integrity, safety, and putting families first,” and hinted that he might stick around. Maybe he’ll run for Higgins’ county seat in August. Maybe he’ll run in the yet-to-be-announced special election in HD 113.
“While this election didn’t end the way we hoped, our fight for accountability, transparency, and a city that works for residents not insiders continues,” he wrote.
That doesn’t sound like goodbye.
You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
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