Miami-Dade’s Democratic mayor saw all her candidates lose to Republicans. What’s next?

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava walked right into her new political reality on election night, when the county’s leading Democrat was stopped in her tracks while trying to join the stage for a victory speech with the county’s newly elected Republican sheriff.

Multiple people who were there recounted seeing the mayor being stopped by security as she tried to join a mostly Republican crowd of supporters behind the winning sheriff candidate Levine Cava had tried to defeat, Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz.

At first, the mayor thought security just didn’t recognize her, one attendee told the Miami Herald. But she was quickly assured otherwise. “They said: ‘We know who you are.’”

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President-elect Donald Trump delivered Republicans a landslide victory in Miami-Dade, foiling Levine Cava’s plan to place Democratic allies in key posts in a government where she’s now in a partisan minority.

Not only is the new sheriff a Republican, but so is the new elections supervisor, Alina Garcia, and the new tax collector, Dariel Fernandez. Each of them defeated Democrats backed by Levine Cava.

On Jan. 7, they’ll take over county departments currently run by Levine Cava herself, leaving the position of mayor with diminished powers thanks to a change in Florida’s Constitution requiring the offices to become independent.

That change, approved in a statewide referendum in 2018, also requires Miami-Dade to transfer its financial oversight — including its 45-person auditing agency — to the court clerk. That position was won Tuesday by Republican Juan Fernandez-Barquin over another candidate Levine Cava campaigned for, Democrat Annette Taddeo.

“I took the results to be a rejection of the mayor’s slate and the mayor’s vision,” said Fernandez-Barquin, who was appointed to the open clerk post by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023. “It was the people expressing their want and need for checks and balances in county government.”

He said he’s planning to dive into accountability measures, including the potential for a dashboard tracking contract spending by the administration and other watchdog features. “I want more transparency on where the funds are going,” he said.

In an interview Wednesday, Levine Cava pointed out that, unlike sheriff and the other countywide positions created by the 2018 constitutional amendment, the office of mayor remains officially nonpartisan. She won reelection in the Aug. 20 county elections against a mostly Republican field of challengers and emphasized she’s ready to work with the people elected by residents on Nov. 5.

“Obviously, the voters spoke. My plan is to work across the aisle, as I always do,” she said.

Asked about the incident by the stage at the Cordero-Stutz party, Levine Cava responded: “It’s all good.”

Cordreo-Stutz, an assistant county police director until Jan. 7, also minimized the incident, noting the mayor did make it up to the stage to greet her.

“I actually said hello to her on stage,” Cordero-Stutz said, adding that she would expect security to not let anyone join the stage once a speech had begun at the party at the EB Hotel near Miami International Airport.

A county police veteran endorsed by Trump in the Republican primary, Cordero-Stutz pulled off a 12-point victory despite being out-spent by Democrat James Reyes, a candidate Levine Cava had elevated with a senior county post and the backing of her fundraising operation.

Once the county’s corrections director, he was named head of public safety — overseeing police and fire, along with jails — just weeks before he filed for the Democratic primary as the instant favorite with Levine Cava’s backing.

Like Taddeo and the other candidates Levine Cava backed, Reyes used the mayor’s campaign manager, Democratic political consultant Christian Ulvert.

During the campaign, Cordero-Stutz criticized Levine Cava’s 2025 budget for reducing police overtime and scaling back money spent on training new officers.

Levine Cava said there are extra dollars reserved to accommodate spending requests by the new sheriff, which will still rely on money approved by the County Commission for a nearly $900 million budget.

On Thursday, Cordero-Stutz suggested a confrontation is coming related to how Miami-Dade wants to fund police once the new sheriff takes over.

“I do have concerns with the budget as the way it is written. But they did state there is a pot of money they set aside,” she said. “I believe at a minimum we are going to need to have conversations about how that money is allocated. I am hoping we can have that conversation sooner rather than later.”

Trump’s decisive win after losing the county in 2016 and 2020 means a changed political landscape for the 13-member County Commission, too. After the 2020 election, each of the seven Democrats on the commission represented a district that voted for President Joe Biden. Now, only three do: Oliver Gilbert, Marleine Bastien and Keon Hardemon, according to a Miami Herald analysis of precinct data.

Trump flipped the Biden districts represented by the other Democrats: Micky Steinberg, Eileen Higgins, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Kionne McGhee. Democrats have a one-seat advantage over Republicans on the commission, although the seats are officially nonpartisan.

On Friday, McGhee said he didn’t expect to see the presidential results change priorities for commissioners or alter how the board operates.

“The dynamics and priorities there have been established over time and aren’t likely to shift due to a single election cycle,” he said in a text message. “I respect the diverse perspectives and voices within our community.”

Even so, the shift has some Republicans picturing a more contentious phase of county government, where a Democratic mayor faces a newly empowered slate of GOP office holders taking power in a county that’s now decidedly red.

Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo — a former county commissioner and a Republican who lost to Levine Cava in the 2020 election for mayor when Biden carried Miami-Dade by six points — said he sees Tuesday’s results as motivation for Republican commissioners to assert themselves more against Levine Cava.

“To my friends on the county commission, this is a clear message by residents,” he said. “Not just from Republicans but from independents who also voted for Trump and who want more accountability.”

“I think they need to use that wind behind their sails,” he said of commissioners. “ And I think they will.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2024 at 5:00 AM.