Bovo or Levine Cava: Who is your local mayor backing for Miami-Dade mayor?
With just over 60 days until their Nov. 3 runoff election, Miami-Dade mayoral candidates Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Daniella Levine Cava are lining up endorsements from many of the county’s municipal leaders.
One key question mirrors the one facing voters: Will those who supported former county mayor Alex Penelas in the primary back Bovo, a conservative Republican who has aligned himself with President Donald Trump, or Levine Cava, a liberal Democrat who ran her primary campaign to the left of Penelas?
Levine Cava, who finished second closely behind Bovo in an officially nonpartisan primary on Aug. 18, has already snagged support from big names in the Democratic Party like U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (who is running her own race against outgoing Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez) and state Sen. Annette Taddeo. Bovo, meanwhile, has earned the backing of the Republican establishment, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.
But at the municipal level, where all elected roles in Miami-Dade are nonpartisan, the dividing lines aren’t always so clear. In Coral Gables, for example, a pair of city leaders are split on their endorsements. Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli endorsed Penelas in the primary and Vice Mayor Vince Lago endorsed Xavier Suarez. They both diverged for the runoff.
Valdés-Fauli is endorsing Levine Cava, saying he feels she “comes down on the right side of history.” Lago, however, said he believes Bovo would be more willing to give cities a seat at the table when it comes to countywide decision making.
Here are Miami-Dade’s local mayors who have endorsed a candidate for Miami-Dade County mayor. An asterisk denotes the mayor endorsed Penelas in the primary.
Levine Cava
▪ Aventura Mayor Enid Weisman*
▪ Coral Gables Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli*
▪ Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace*
▪ Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber
▪ Miami Shores Mayor Crystal Wagar*
▪ North Bay Village Mayor Brent Latham
▪ North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime*
▪ Opa-locka Mayor Matthew Pigatt
▪ Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham
▪ South Miami Mayor Sally Philips
▪ Sunny Isles Beach Mayor George “Bud” Scholl
Bovo
▪ Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman
▪ Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset De la Cruz
▪ Medley Mayor Roberto Martell*
▪ Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid
▪ Miami Springs Mayor Billy Bain
▪ Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez*
Other mayors say they are undecided, or have chosen not to endorse. Those include Homestead’s Steven Losner, Key Biscayne’s Mike Davey, Cutler Bay’s Tim Meerbott, Doral’s JC Bermudez, Bay Harbor Islands’ Stephanie Bruder, Pinecrest’s Joseph Corradino and Miami Gardens’ Oliver Gilbert.
“I haven’t really thought about it, honestly,” said Gilbert, who didn’t endorse a mayoral candidate in the primary and won a tight race last month for county commission. “I was kind of in my own space with my election.”
Bruder said that, while she hasn’t made a formal endorsement, she leans toward Levine Cava.
“I think she’s open-minded, she brings another perspective to the position. I like her,” she said.
Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez and Golden Beach Mayor Glenn Singer have also not endorsed Levine Cava or Bovo, though they endorsed Penelas in the primary.
Hernandez has declined to throw his weight behind Bovo, a fellow Hialeah Republican, even as most of his fellow elected officials in Miami-Dade’s second-largest city and its neighboring municipalities do so.
“They’re two solid candidates,” Hernandez said, adding that it’s “premature to say” whether he will choose to endorse either one.
The mayors of neighboring Miami Lakes and Hialeah Gardens, on the other hand, are all in for Bovo. Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset De La Cruz said he’s worked closely with Bovo for years since Bovo’s days as a state representative and a Hialeah city councilman.
He pointed to Bovo’s support for projects like a museum honoring Bay of Pigs veterans — including Bovo’s own father — in Hialeah Gardens.
“He has proven, at least to me, that he’s very helpful to my city,” De La Cruz said. “With Bovo, the lines of communication absolutely will be open.”
Levine Cava and Bovo have also both announced endorsements from dozens of current and former city commissioners and council members around Miami-Dade.
One mayor says Bovo falsely touted endorsement
In a tweet Wednesday, Bovo named eight municipal leaders — seven mayors and one vice mayor — who he said were “proudly endorsing” him. But one of them, North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, says he never gave his permission.
“I have not endorsed anybody. I have not signed anything, I have not said anything, I have not given anybody my commitment whatsoever,” DeFillipo said Thursday morning. “I’ll call him and have it taken down.”
A couple hours later, DeFillipo said Bovo apologized and never authorized DeFillipo’s inclusion in the tweet himself, though it remained online around 1 p.m.
Bovo told the Herald it was an “honest mistake” by someone working for his campaign, and that the tweet would be taken down and replaced Thursday afternoon. “Nothing nefarious,” he said.
DeFillipo, a Democrat in a nonpartisan seat, endorsed Penelas in the primary. He said the Bovo and Levine Cava camps have both reached out to him, but that he doesn’t plan on making an endorsement in the runoff.
“I’m really staying out of this one,” he said. “I was really hoping for Alex to pull this one off.”
Other officials whose endorsements Bovo touted Wednesday confirmed they do support Bovo, including Medley Mayor Roberto Martell — who endorsed Penelas in the primary — and Lago, the Coral Gables vice mayor.
Levine Cava’s campaign made a similar gaffe during the primary in June. A mailer said she was endorsed by Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace, but Wallace had in fact shifted his support from Levine Cava to Penelas after Penelas entered the race.
“Alex is a friend of mine, and we had a long prior relationship,” Wallace said Thursday. “But I am solidly and happily endorsing Daniella now. I’m in the Cava corner now.”
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Coral Gables Vice Mayor Vince Lago endorsed Alex Penelas in the Miami-Dade County mayoral primary election. He endorsed Xavier Suarez.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 1:12 PM.
