Miami-Dade’s elections director was ready to run for the job in ’24. Now she’s not
After joining the Democratic Party and privately telling supporters she was ready to run, the appointed director of Miami-Dade County’s Election Department has decided not to enter the 2024 race to lead the agency when her job becomes an elected position.
Christina White, head of elections since 2015, confirmed Friday she won’t be running for elections supervisor next year.
“After further discussion with my family and careful consideration, I have decided not to run for political office at this time,” White said in a statement. “I’ve chosen instead to continue focusing my efforts on leading the Elections Department staff through the 2024 election cycle and providing stability during the transition to a constitutional office”
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In April, White, 45, ended her status as a voter without partisan affiliation and joined the Democratic Party, the first public sign of her preparing to run for the supervisor’s post. While county offices are non-partisan, positions created by state law are mostly partisan and candidates must win their parties’ nominations to compete in the November election.
White’s Friday statement resets the contest for one of three positions that currently report to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava but will become independent after the 2024 election under a constitutional amendment Florida voters approved in 2018.
White was planning to use Levine Cava’s campaign manager, Christian Ulvert, to run her 2024 campaign and join an unofficial Democratic slate of Ulvert clients for the new constitutional offices as the mayor, also a Democrat, seeks reelection.
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Other Ulvert clients already running are sheriff candidate Freddy Ramirez, police director under Levine Cava, and David Richardson, a Miami Beach commissioner and accountant who is running for tax collector.
So far, only one candidate has filed for the supervisor race: Democrat Willis Perry Howard, 49, a campaign consultant active in local races and a former chief of staff at the city of North Miami Beach.
Two Democrats who are both election lawyers and former members of the Florida House say they are considering runs for the supervisor post. They are Joe Geller, 69, a longtime Democrat who left the House in 2022 and who was the party’s county chair during the contested 2000 presidential recount in Miami-Dade; and J.C. Planas, 52, a Republican House member in the 2000s who switched to the Democratic Party in 2020.
“I think there’s an opportunity to educate the general public about civic participation,” Geller said of the role of an elected supervisor. “Having said that, it’s a big undertaking. I think it will require a lot of money to run.”
Planas said he’ll make a decision soon. “I will take the next week to meet elected and community leaders, as well with family, neighbors and friends on how I can best serve our community,” he said. Planas said White’s decision not to run opened up the possibility of him seeking the office.
“If Christina decided to run, I would support her wholeheartedly,” he said. “I would have never run against her.”