After an eight-year breather from ambitious plans and metropolitan agendas, Miami has put its faith in a new, young mayor and political scion eager to get moving on a big agenda.
Voters on Tuesday elected City Commissioner Francis Suarez as the 34th mayor of Miami, choosing the 40-year-old Carlton Fields attorney and son of a former mayor and embracing his talk of a new vision and generation of leadership for the capital of the Americas.
A huge favorite over an underwhelming field, Suarez unofficially netted about 86 percent of the vote.
His victory never in doubt, he strolled onto a stage at the Omni Hilton on Biscayne Boulevard around 8:30 p.m. with his father, pregnant wife and son, Andrew, and spoke about a mission backed by a voter mandate. Four years after stumbling in his challenge of 70-year-old incumbent Tomás Regalado, the son of Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor declared his victory a mandate for passing Miami’s leadership to a new generation
“The voters who cast a ballot in today’s election have entrusted their city to a young man, born in Miami, cultivated and nurtured in our city’s neighborhoods and parks,” he said. “Today’s vote is a mandate — a mandate for change, and a mandate for a new beginning.”
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
