Bastien and Cabrera win as term limits reshape the Miami-Dade County Commission

Voters elected two new members of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday, with Marleine Bastien winning the District 2 seat to succeed Jean Monestime, and Kevin Marino Cabrera winning the District 6 seat to succeed Rebeca Sosa.

By 9:30 p.m. Bastien, a nonprofit director, was ahead of Philippe Bien-Aime, the mayor of North Miami, in the runoff election to replace the term-limited Monestime, who has represented the northern Miami district since 2010.

Cabrera, a lobbyist, was ahead of Jorge Fors Jr., a Coral Gables commissioner and lawyer, in the runoff election to replace the term-limited Sosa, who has represented the western Miami district since 2001.

The District 6 result was an indirect win for former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cabrera, a Republican who was a paid staff member of the Trump 2020 campaign in Florida.

READ MORE: Will Trump matter in the contest to replace Rebeca Sosa on the Miami-Dade Commission?

Trump appeared prominently on Cabrera’s campaign materials, and Cabrera spoke at Trump’s Miami-Dade rally on Sunday. Sosa endorsed Fors. Both are Republicans in a district Trump won by 20 points two years ago.

Monestime endorsed Bastien for the District 2 seat. Monestime is the only Haitian American to serve on the County Commission, and the two District 2 candidates also were born in Haiti.

READ MORE: Two Haitian-American leaders compete to replace Monestime on Miami-Dade commission

With two Haitian-American candidates, competition was high for Black voters in District 2.

Bien-Aime had endorsements from two Black county commissioners: Keon Hardemon, who represents neighboring District 3, and Kionne McGhee, who represents South Miami-Dade’s District 9. Bastien was endorsed by William “DC” Clark, a Black candidate who finished third in the August District 2 primary before the two-person runoff for the seat.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava endorsed Bastien in the District 2 race, a contest between two fellow Democrats. County races are nonpartisan, and the four candidates on the November ballot first competed in August elections with other contenders for the district seats. The top two finishers advanced to the November runoff for each race.

District 2 runs from the northern edge of Miami to North Miami Beach, including large portions of North Miami and Opa-locka and a small portion of Hialeah. Neighborhoods in the unincorporated portions of District 2 include Biscayne Gardens, Liberty City and North-Central Dade.

Bastien, 63, is founder and director of the Family Action Network Movement, a social services organization focusing on low-income residents. Bien-Aime, 57, has been North Miami’s mayor since 2019.

At a party in a hotel ballroom in the North-Central Dade neighborhood outside of Miami, Bastien thanked God, her family and supporters. “Tonight, we did it, as we said we would,” she said. “Now I’m calling everyone at the table to join me and get to work.”

In a speech to supporters at a party in a restaurant next to North Miami’s City Hall, Bien-Aime congratulated Bastien. “It’s a game of democracy,” he said later. “The best wins.”

District 6 is bisected by the Dolphin Expressway, centered around Miami International Airport, and stretches from Hialeah to neighborhoods just outside of South Miami. Cities in DIstrict 6 are Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens and West Miami.

Cabrera, 32, works for Mercury, a lobbying and public affairs firm. He said he would not represent any clients with business before Miami-Dade government. His wife is Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, a Republican member of the Florida House who won her second term on Tuesday representing parts of District 6 in Tallahassee.

“I’m humbled and honored by the overwhelming level of support from the voters in District 6,” Cabrera said Tuesday night in a statement. “I look forward to representing the residents of District 6 and ensuring they have a voice at County Hall.”

Fors, 39, a first-term Gables commissioner, was elected to the city post in 2019.

In a statement, Fors congratulated Cabrera and said he was “beyond proud” of the race he ran. “It was based on truth and it was backed by family and friends,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

Elections for three commission seats were settled in August. Candidates in each of those contests — District 8’s Danielle Cohen Higgins, District 10’s Anthony Rodriguez and District 12’s Juan Carlos Bermudez — received more than 50% of the vote and avoided runoffs. A fourth election was settled in June when Micky Steinberg was the only candidate to file for the District 4 seat.

The six winners take office Nov. 22. Only Cohen Higgins is an incumbent, with the other five replacing commissioners who were in office in 2012 when voters approved a charter amendment limiting commissioners to a pair of consecutive four-year terms.

READ MORE: Results from the August elections for the Miami-Dade County Commission

Commission terms that started before 2012 weren’t counted against the two-term cap and 2020 saw the first wave of term-limited commissioners exit their seats. The 2022 elections will complete that churn, with no commissioner in office in 2012 remaining on the board.

The forced exits in November will mean a younger incoming commission. While the average age of a commissioner on Election Day was 56, that will drop to 47 once the new members take their seats. The average age of the departing commissioners is 68.

Miami-Dade voters approve two charter amendments

Also on Tuesday, voters approved two amendments to the Miami-Dade County Charter aimed at bolstering the county government’s independence from Tallahassee.

One amendment requires new commissioners and county mayors to pledge to defend the charter as part of the oath they take before assuming office. In 1956, Florida approved a constitutional amendment giving Miami-Dade a “home rule” charter that grants the county more autonomy from state laws than other counties.

The other amendment requires a public referendum before Miami-Dade could transfer ownership of PortMiami, Miami International Airport or toll roads that are part of the Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority. The provision is designed to prevent any future effort by Florida to take over the county-owned airport and seaport. Miami-Dade is currently suing the state to block an attempted takeover of the MDX toll system.

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 10:27 PM.