Tuesday’s race for Miami-Dade County Mayor ended on odd terms.
Even though Mayor Carlos Gimenez won by a significant margin, his challenger refused to concede.
Mayor Gimenez’s campaign spent hours at the Doubletree hotel near the airport waiting for his opponent to throw in the towel-- but that never happened.
Gimenez was leading in his reelection race by almost 25 percentage points all night and it was looking like the election was going to be called early for Gimenez, but challenger Joe Martinez told his supporters at the 94th Aerosquadron "this ain't over."
"For right now this isn’t over," Martinez later told reporters. "We are still in this race."
Martinez disputes the validity absentee ballots used in the race. A a ballot fraud scandal in the county indirectly embroiled Gimenez just a few weeks earlier. However, the scandal clearly did not hurt his campaign.
Martinez said the race would not be over until the absentee ballots were reviewed, while Gimenez waited late into the night to give his victory speech.
Once 100 percent of the precincts in Miami-Dade reported their numbers, Gimenez finally celebrated his win.
“I am very humbled by the vote that we received tonight of 54 percent," Gimenez says. "When you have 6 or seven candidates its difficult to go over 50 percent. So, I am grateful to the people of Miami Dade County for showing confidence in me to lead this community forward for the next four years.”
