Embattled state legislator Basabe has a challenger coming for him in ’24
_fitted.png "Former state representative Joe Saunders is running against Fabian Basabe for House District 106.")
Joe Saunders, a former Democratic state representative and the senior political director for LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, announced Monday that he will run next year against Republican state Rep. Fabian Basabe, a socialite-turned-politician who has had a tumultuous first session in the Legislature.
Saunders, 40, will look to unseat Basabe in the 2024 election for House District 106, which includes Miami Beach and other coastal communities.
Saunders has been an outspoken critic in recent weeks of Basabe, who is under investigation for allegedly slapping an aide and has come under fire for voting alongside fellow Republicans on bills related to LGBTQ issues, abortion and gun control, despite campaigning as a moderate who was willing to cross party lines.
“This session has been one of the most devastating for LGBTQ rights in Florida’s modern history, and Republicans have effectively banned abortion — all while ignoring the skyrocketing costs of living, housing, and healthcare,” Saunders said in a statement. “This Legislature is broken and we need a new one.”
After almost a decade as Equality Florida’s field director, Saunders was elected to the Florida House to represent the Orlando area in 2012, when he and Miami Beach’s David Richardson became the first openly gay members of the Florida Legislature. He narrowly lost his reelection campaign two years later to Rene Plasencia.
Saunders then worked on legislative and election efforts for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, before returning to Equality Florida in 2017.
He is registered to vote in Miami Beach, where he owns a home.
As Basabe has faced increasing backlash from constituents — he was booed at the Miami Beach pride parade last month — Saunders has made him a focus of Equality Florida’s activism. Saunders helped lead a protest outside Basabe’s office in North Bay Village and has posted regularly on social media about Basabe’s voting record.
“HD 106 deserves a leader who knows that there’s strength in our diversity,” Saunders wrote on Facebook after Basabe voted for a bill targeting diversity initiatives and classes on systemic racism in higher education. “Don’t be fooled, he’s an extremist.”
Basabe, 45, defeated Jordan Leonard by just over 200 votes to win his legislative seat in November, buoyed by support from some prominent local Democrats.
The son of a wealthy Ecuadorian businessman, Basabe has a long history of controversial headlines dating back to his days as a New York socialite.
In 2019, a publicist told Page Six that Basabe called her the N-word and a “whore” after she didn’t let him into an Art Basel party. He denied using the language.
The following year, Basabe faced a criminal charge after he grabbed a neighbor’s phone and threw it into the bay during a dispute over COVID-related restrictions at his condo’s pool area, according to a police report. Basabe said the neighbor was trying to film his 11-year-old son.
He was later arrested by U.S. marshals on a boat in South Carolina after he allegedly failed to address the charge in Florida. Basabe has said he wasn’t fleeing and told the Miami New Times last year that he “had no reason to believe a warrant for my arrest was issued.”
In 2021, Basabe sought to run for Miami Beach City Commission but was disqualified for failing to meet the city’s residency requirements.
Now, he is embroiled in a scandal involving a 25-year-old aide who claims Basabe slapped him and told him to stand in a corner during a January event hosted by a Tallahassee lobbying firm.
Florida House Speaker Paul Renner has hired an outside attorney to investigate the allegation.
