Carlos Gimenez wins re-election as Miami-Dade mayor

MIAMI (WSVN) - Carlos Gimenez has won the 2016 mayoral election against challenger Raquel Regalado.

Regalado conceded her campaign Tuesday evening after thanking the many involved with her campaign. “I respect democracy, and today I respect the will of the people,” she said. “The people have spoken, and they’ve decided to give Carlos Gimenez another four years.”

However, Regalado mentioned that she will still be around with the statement, “I’m not going anywhere.”

In his victory speech, Gimenez thanked his supporters and spoke on some of his plans for the next four years and how he plans to make Miami-Dade one of the best areas in the nation. “We will be known as one of the great cities of the United States by the end of this century,” Gimenez said.

“We already are becoming one of the great cities of the United States right now, but we have to make sure we have an eye to the future,” Gimenez went on to say. “We have to make sure that we can diversify our economy. We have to make sure that all segments of our community — all Miamians can participate in economic well-being and economic growth, and that’s gonna be the focus of my next four years.”

Gimenez and Regalado went into a November runoff election after the primary mayoral vote in August. Gimenez received 48 percent of the vote, failing to reach the 50 percent threshold for an outright win. Regalado received 32 percent. In order to have avoided a runoff, Gimenez needed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote.

Then, less than two weeks before Election Day, Regalado filed suit to “disqualify Gimenez and void any votes for him in the November 8 election” in Miami-Dade County Court. She claimed the check Gimenez filed to run for re-election was flawed because it had the wrong year on it.

However, on Nov. 3, a judge dismissed her lawsuit against Gimenez, in effect ruling that the voters will decide the outcome of the race come Election Day.

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