He’s a conservative Cuban-American YouTube star. Now he’s running for Miami-Dade mayor
Alexander Otaola, the polarizing host of a YouTube channel focused on Cuba, conservative causes and the threat of communism in Miami, has filed to challenge Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in 2024.
Otaola, a Republican Cuban-American and the host of the “Hola Ota-Ola!” show, filed his candidacy papers Tuesday for the non-partisan election in which Levine Cava, a Democrat, is seeking her second term as the county’s chief executive.
READ MORE: His Miami YouTube show helped push Cuban Americans to Trump. Now he wants to be mayor
Otaola, 43, gained national attention in the run-up to the 2020 election for promoting former President Donald Trump’s reelection on his Spanish-language show, targeting a younger Cuban-American demographic that helped deliver the Republican incumbent a surprisingly narrow seven-point loss in Miami-Dade and an easy win in Florida.
He’s appeared in blackface on his show, a program that Mother Jones described as a mix of “Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, Entertainment Tonight, and Breitbart.” His channel has more than 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Otaola could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His candidacy papers list the address of his four-bedroom home outside of Homestead, which his media company purchased for $800,000 in 2020, according to county records.
He told his audience last summer he planned to run for county mayor in a monologue that focused on the city of Miami and did not mention Miami-Dade’s incumbent mayor.
“We are going to get the communists out of Miami,” Otaola said in Spanish on the June 21, 2022, show. “If I win I will do everything, absolutely everything, so that not a single dollar comes out of this city, this county, to feed the Cuban dictatorship.”
He’s the third person to file for the 2024 mayoral race after Levine Cava and Miguel “el Skipper” Quintero, a trapeze artist who also has a YouTube channel called the Miami Circus.
Otaola surpasses Levine Cava on social media. His Instagram account has 240,000 followers, compared to the 38,000 people who follow Levine Cava’s county account.
Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster, said he didn’t think the YouTube host’s candidacy would gain traction.
“I think this is a stunt candidacy designed to inflame the most extremist right-wing passions and beliefs of the Miami-Dade County electorate,” he said. “And get some new subscribers and clicks for his YouTube channel.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 2:43 PM.