Alex Daoud, Miami Beach mayor during South Beach’s rise and convicted felon, dies at 81
Alex Daoud, Miami Beach’s mayor as South Beach began to rise from a beachfront slum to one of the world’s style and party centers before going to federal prison on corruption charges, has died at age 81.
Daoud’s nephew, A.J. Daoud, said in a Facebook post that his uncle died on Saturday, March 15. The family has not publicly stated a cause of death.
The Miami Beach City Commission honored Daoud with a moment of silence at a meeting Wednesday.
“His passing really came as a shock because it just happened out of nowhere,” said Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.
Daoud served as a Miami City Attorney, then was elected to the Miami Beach City Commission in 1979.
He was reelected to a second term in 1981 and then a third term in 1983.
In 1985, he became the first Roman Catholic to be elected mayor of Miami Beach and was reelected in 1987 and then in 1989 to an unprecedented third term.
However, on Oct. 29, 1991, Daoud was indicted on federal bribery charges. He confessed to receiving bribes from developers in return for political influence and City Commission votes, as well as soliciting free work on his house from contractors seeking city contracts.
He was convicted of bribery in 1992 and of other corruption crimes in 1993. He served 17 months in federal prison, followed by three years of probation.
In 2007, he published “Sins of South Beach: The True Story of Corruption, Violence, Murder and the Making of Miami Beach,” an autobiographical depiction of Miami Beach in the 1980s.
Stu Blumberg, the former president of Miami-Dade County’s hotel trade group who worked for businessman Stephen Muss during Daoud’s mayoral tenure, said Daoud was a “larger than life” personality and a big supporter of tourism before his political downfall.
As mayor, Daoud was tall, good-looking and “dominated a room,” he said.
“He had a tremendous future in politics,” Blumberg said. “He had the charisma and he had the smarts and then he went sideways.”
After Daoud’s indictment, Miami Beach voters elected Seymour Gelber, a juvenile judge with a reserved personality, reflecting a desire for change at City Hall.
Daoud was an “extremely charismatic politician with a sort of larger than life personality,” said Dan Gelber, Seymour Gelber’s son and also a former Miami Beach mayor. Daoud was especially popular with senior citizens, Dan Gelber said.
“He was an old-school politician,” he said. “He had a charming way about him.”
Daoud mostly stayed out of the public eye more recently as he battled health issues and family disputes. In 2014, he told the Miami Herald he had few friends and was fighting a lawsuit his daughter had filed against him over the home he was living in.
Still, behind the scenes, Daoud remained engaged in Miami Beach politics and made friends with a younger generation of city leaders. Last year, he was elected to the Palm View Neighborhood Association board.
Rosen Gonzalez, who was first elected to the City Commission in 2015, said she called Daoud around 2013 after reading his book, which listed his phone number at the end. The book, she said, was like a “political bible for Miami Beach politics.”
They began talking regularly, Rosen Gonzalez said, as Daoud offered her political advice. Daoud’s home was filled with Miami Beach memorabilia, she said, including photographs from a 1986 boxing match between Daoud and then-Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez that was declared a draw.
Daoud and his girlfriend cared for German shepherds and also kept raccoons and a colony of bees as pets, Rosen Gonzalez said.
“He was eccentric,” she said, “and very funny.”
Another of Daoud’s friends was legendary South Beach runner Robert “Raven” Kraft, who mourned Daoud’s passing on social media. Daoud was “one of my best friends,” Kraft wrote, saying Daoud checked in with him almost every day.
“As y’all know, Alex was far from perfect,” he said, “but was a good man and bigger than life character.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2025 at 3:08 PM.
