Miami-Dade County

Miami Springs to get new mayor and two new council members after election

Miami Springs Councilwoman Maria Puente Mitchell ran unopposed for mayor in the April 6 election.
Miami Springs Councilwoman Maria Puente Mitchell ran unopposed for mayor in the April 6 election. For the Miami Herald

Realtor Jacky Bravo and Miami Dade College history professor Victor Vazquez defeated their opponents in Tuesday’s election in Miami Springs, winning seats on the city council to replace one interim council member who chose not to seek re-election and another who won the mayor’s seat unopposed.

Bravo beat longtime Miami Springs resident Vivian Isla-Ray with 55% of votes, according to unofficial results posted shortly after 7 p.m. by Miami-Dade’s elections department. Vazquez won handily with 70% of votes against Vincent Medel, the president of the Miami Springs Republican Club.

Just over 2,000 votes were cast out of nearly 9,500 registered voters in the city, a turnout of about 22%.

Bravo will succeed Councilwoman Maria Puente Mitchell, who ran unopposed for mayor. She will replace term-limited Mayor Billy Bain.

Incumbent Councilmen Bob Best and Walter Fajet also ran unopposed.

The new members will be sworn in at next Monday’s council meeting, which will be the last for Bain and Councilman Zavier Garcia, who was appointed last year after Jaime Petralanda resigned to run for school board. Vazquez will take Garcia’s seat.

This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 8:46 PM.

Aaron Leibowitz
Miami Herald
Aaron Leibowitz covers the city of Miami Beach for the Miami Herald, where he has worked as a local government reporter since 2019. He was part of a team that won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
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