Miami-Dade Mayor Gimenez tells supporters he’ll announce a run for Congress Wednesday
Carlos Gimenez, three-time mayor of Miami-Dade County, is telling supporters he has decided to run for Congress and is preparing to announce his campaign next week.
Gimenez, who has mulled a congressional bid for weeks, has called allies and donors in recent days to say he’s decided to announce plans to seek Florida’s 26th congressional district as a Republican. The seat, representing Southwest Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys, is currently held by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Gimenez is planning a public announcement Wednesday, one day after he delivers his final State of the County address, according to three sources. It’s not yet known where he will roll out his campaign.
“Sometime next week I’ll make an announcement,” a coy Gimenez told the Miami Herald Thursday in a brief interview at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, during which he declined to answer questions about one of the critical issues now facing Congress: the U.S. conflict with Iran. “I’ll have a lot more to say if I run for Congress, OK?”
Gimenez’s declaration would resolve one of the largest unknowns in Miami-Dade politics, where a scrum is jockeying to replace the 65-year-old grandfather as the strong mayor of the county’s $9 billion government. Term limits are forcing Gimenez from the position, which he has held since winning a special election in 2011, and Gimenez has spent weeks deciding between running for Congress or seeking a seat he previously held on the county commission.
Gimenez has never run a partisan campaign. But his candidacy would be an instant boost for Washington Republicans, who have recruited the mayor for weeks to run in a seat seen as a national bellwether. Mucarsel-Powell flipped the seat in 2018, beating Republican incumbent Carlos Curbelo.
The Florida Democratic Party and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have been preparing for a Gimenez entry into the race.
The moderate, Cuban-born mayor is both well-known countywide and a prolific fundraiser — key assets in a potential Republican campaign for a sprawling, majority-Hispanic swing district that President Donald Trump lost by more than 16 points in 2016.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district, but Gimenez said Thursday that a Republican can “absolutely” win the seat with Trump on the ballot.
Gimenez has already blown past self-imposed deadlines on a decision about his political future, including one in late October. He declined to say Thursday why the decision has taken so long, but it wasn’t for lack of preparation.
Over the final months of 2019, he has courted donors and spoken with Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. He has also worked with fundraiser Zach Burr, who over the last decade has helped U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast and former congressman Carlos Curbelo raise campaign cash.
Gimenez declined when approached a second time Thursday by the Miami Herald to discuss his conversations with McCarthy and Burr’s work for his campaign. He would not discuss the date for his announcement.
“I’m not answering any questions,” he told a reporter while arriving at Royal Caribbean’s headquarters at the county’s PortMiami for a reception for the sailing charity Shake-a-Leg.
Barring a change of plans, Gimenez will enter a Republican primary Wednesday that is already well underway: Omar Blanco, the former head of the Miami-Dade County firefighters union, and Irina Vilariño, co-owner of the Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine restaurant chain, have been campaigning and raising cash for months.
The intraparty race poses some challenges for the mayor, who in 2016 called on Trump to end his presidential campaign following the release of a videotape that caught him talking about groping women. Gimenez also flirted with leaving the Republican party in 2014 and said in 2016 that he voted for Hillary Clinton.
Gimenez will also be under pressure to flex his fundraising prowess. Fundraising totals haven’t been posted yet for the fourth quarter of 2019, but Mucarsel-Powell announced Monday that she raised $575,000 during the period and is sitting on $1.6 million in campaign cash.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:58 PM.
