Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, an unpopular Republican who is now running for President, is begging for contributions and offering people a $20 gift card for a $1 political contribution. It’s not a good reflection of the strength of a candidate’s campaign when engaging in what some may call political bribery.
The Miami Republican may be struggling in his national campaign for attacking former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, two of the most popular figures in Florida politics and the national Republican Party. He’s also a Republican mayor in Democratic South Florida, and although he has been able to win in that area, he doesn’t have strong conservative credentials outside of business policy. And on that matter, he’s the mayor who doubled down on crypto, which remains questionable and controversial among both parties.
On top of those major political differences, Mayor Suarez also voted for troubled Democrat Andrew Gillum when he ran for Florida Governor against DeSantis. He’s problematic politically in the Republican Party for many reasons.
Suarez also appears to be thin-skinned, especially for being in politics, as he noted a reason he does not support Gov. DeSantis is that his feelings got hurt when DeSantis didn’t reach out to him.
“I gave money to Ron DeSantis in that primary, the same primary where he says of President Trump he helped him when it wasn’t smart to help him,” Mayor Suarez said on FoxNews. “And you know what, I never got a phone call saying ‘thank you,’ I never got a follow-up, I never got a ‘hey would you like to support me, hey would you like to endorse me?’ There was no relationship built, and frankly he lost my city by 20 points.”
All of these things are reasons why he’s not raising money from Republican voters and not polling in the primary.
In recent elections, Miami has definitely underperformed for the Florida Democratic Party, so Mayor Suarez isn’t the only Republican able to pull votes from that area. And the way Mayor Suarez is also proud he did not vote for President Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020 and refuses to really talk about Trump is not going to be good in a Republican primary. Both parties are focused heavily on party loyalty.
It’s confusing what Suarez thinks his path may be, as it appears he is out of his league in the Presidential election.
Perhaps Mayor Suarez thinks this is a way to get his name out there more, and maybe he will end up trying to run statewide for Governor or Senator in the future.
