Voters elect three Miami-Dade County commissioners. Two races head to runoff elections
Three candidates won seats on the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday night and two races are headed to runoff elections as the last of the board’s veteran members are forced out by term limits.
Danielle Cohen Higgins, Anthony Rodriguez and Juan Carlos “J.C.” Bermudez each won more than 50% of the votes in their races for commission districts 8, 10 and 12, respectively, and crossed the threshold for winning county elections in August.
Voters still have two commission contests to decide in November in races where no candidate received a majority of the votes.
In District 2, voters will pick the next commissioner in a runoff between leader Philippe Bien-Aime and Marleine Bastien. In District 6, Kevin Marino Cabrera faces Jorge Fors Jr. in that runoff.
This year’s commission elections will bring the final exits of long-serving commissioners on the 13-seat board.
Five commissioners are leaving due to term limits: District 2’s Jean Monestime, District 4’s Sally Heyman, District 6’s Rebeca Sosa, District 10’s Javier Souto and District 12’s Jose “Pepe” Diaz.
Miami-Dade voters approved a term-limit measure in 2012, and it restricts commissioners to serving a pair of consecutive four-year terms.
Here is a summary of the five Miami-Dade commission races on the ballot Tuesday:
BIEN-AIME AND BASTIEN IN RUNOFF FOR MONESTIME DISTRICT 2 SEAT
The race to fill the seat held for 12 years by Miami-Dade County’s first Haitian-American commissioner, Jean Monestime, drew six candidates, making it the most crowded ballot for the county contests. The two candidates heading for a November runoff — Philippe Bien-Aime, the mayor of North Miami, and Marleine Bastien, leader of a community nonprofit — are both Haitian American.
With all precincts reporting Bien-Aime led the vote tally, with 26% of the vote. Bastien had 24%.
William DC Clark, a retired paramedic, finished third with 21%, followed by high school principal Wallace Aristide at 18%; former North Miami Beach Mayor Joe Celestin at 7%, and 4% for Monique Barely-Mayo, a former Miami-Dade mayor candidate.
Jean Monestime, the current District 2 commissioner, did not endorse anyone in the race.
District 2 includes northern portions of Miami and the municipalities and neighborhoods in that area, stretching from the Miami River to North Miami Beach. South Florida’s I-95 runs through the middle of the district, which includes portions of Hialeah and Opa-locka.
TRUMP VS. SOSA AS CABRERA, FORS HEAD TO DISTRICT 6 RUNOFF
The District 6 contest to replace Rebeca Sosa after 21 years turned bitter, with volleys of negative mailers sent by the leading candidates in fundraising, lobbyist Kevin Cabrera and Coral Gables Commissioner Jorge Fors Jr.
The contest divided party leaders over the two Republican candidates, with Sosa backing Fors and former President Donald Trump endorsing Cabrera, who worked on Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. Cabrera is married to Demi Busatta Cabrera, a Republican representing District 114 in the Florida House.
Cabrera led Tuesday’s vote by a wide margin after all the precincts reported, taking 43% of the ballots cast. Fors received 26%.
Victor Vazquez, a Miami Springs commissioner, finished third with 18%, followed by 13% for Dariel Fernandez, a member of Miami-Dade’s Republican Party Executive Committee.
District 6 stretches from the Hialeah area to the Snapper Creek Expressway. Other cities in District 6 are Coral Gables, Miami Springs and West Miami
COHEN HIGGINS, ONLY COMMISSIONER ON BALLOT, WINS IN DISTRICT 8
Danielle Cohen Higgins, 41, faced her first election Tuesday, and won it by a comfortable margin. Fellow commissioners appointed her to the District 8 seat in December 2020 after Daniella Levine Cava resigned the post following her election as the county’s mayor.
With roughly 57% of the vote after all precincts reported, Cohen Higgins finished well ahead of her two opponents. Karen Baez-Wallis, a former director of Jackson South Medical Center’s trauma center, received 23% of the vote and Alicia Arellano, a real estate agent and swim coach, got 20%.
In a statement congratulating Cohen Higgins and the night’s other two winners — District 10’s Anthony Rodriguez and District 12’s Juan Carlos J.C. Bermudez — Levine Cava said she was “thrilled” her successor could continue to be “a strong champion for District 8.”
District 8 includes Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, parts of Homestead and the Kendall and Redland areas.
GOP FLORIDA REP. RODRIGUEZ WINS DISTRICT 10 SEAT TO REPLACE SOUTO
Anthony Rodriguez already represents part of District 10 as a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, and he enjoyed a comfortable lead Tuesday night over the three other candidates to succeed Javier Souto, in office since 1993.
With all precincts reporting, Rodriguez won with 56% of the vote. Martha Bueno, a member of the West Kendall Community Council board, finished second with 22%, followed by 16% for Susan Khoury, a former federal agent, and 6% for Julio Sanchez, owner of a medical software firm.
Rodriguez was elected to Florida House District 118 in 2018. District 10 is a western area with no municipalities but includes large suburban neighborhoods, including Westchester and Fontainebleau.
Souto endorsed Rodriguez.
BERMUDEZ, SECOND TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE, WINS IN DISTRICT 12
In the District 12 race, Doral Mayor Juan Carlos “J.C.” Bermudez won endorsements from political opposites: Miami-Dade’s Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican.
The district includes Doral, where Trump owns a golf resort, Hialeah Gardens, Medley, Sweetwater and parts of Hialeah.
With all precincts reporting, Bermudez won with 66% of the votes cast. His opponent, former Sweetwater commissioner Sophia Lacayo, who spent roughly $1 million of her own money on the District 12 race, had the remaining 34% of the vote.
Jose “Pepe” Diaz, the incumbent commissioner, has held the District 12 seat since 2002. He did not endorse anyone in the race.
STEINBERG ELECTED IN DISTRICT 4
Former Miami Beach commissioner Micky Steinberg won incumbent Sally Heyman’s District 4 seat in June when no other candidate filed for the race.
Heyman and the other commissioners leaving this year are the last of the board members in office when the term-limit rules went into effect in 2012.
Commission elections are held every two years, and switch between even-numbered and odd-numbered districts.
This story was originally published August 23, 2022 at 10:09 PM.