(WSVN) - It may be a presidential election year, but that’s not the only big race for residents in Miami-Dade County.
An open seat for Miami-Dade mayor now has two county commissioners vying for the top job in the county.
“I’m going to step up to the 29th floor and make sure we rebuild stronger than ever,” Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava said.
“I wanted our government to go back to the purpose we created it for,” Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Commissioner Esteban Bovo said.
Bovo and Levine Cava are set to go head to head in a runoff race.
“I spent 40 years working on behalf of communities throughout Miami-Dade, always listening to people’s concerns,” Levine Cava said.
“For a long time, I felt the taxpayer and the purpose we built county government to do was being forgotten,” Bovo said.
Bovo was elected in 2011 to represent District 13, which includes Hialeah and Miami Lakes.
His campaign has been hard at work stumping for votes in the office, while Bovo himself has been hitting the ground to push his platform.
“At the very core is police and fire,” he said. “Heaven forbid either one of us needs the use of fire or police, we want them to show up in a couple minutes, not 25 to 30 minutes.”
Levine Cava, meanwhile, was first elected in 2014 and serves District 8, which includes Homestead and Palmetto Bay.
“This is far and away the most important election,” she said.
Levine Cava, who would be Miami-Dade’s first female mayor, and the first without Cuban roots since the ’90s, is also working hard to recruit support.
“We live in incredible times,” she said. “We live in paradise, but we have lots of challenges, and especially in this COVID epidemic, it is so important to get it right.”
Both Bovo and Levine Cava are focused on what a Miami-Dade comeback looks like amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m going to double down on the medical issues,” Levine Cava said. “Supporting our small businesses [and] also infrastructure.”
“There is going to have to be an investment to say, ‘Miami-Dade is open for business,'” said Bovo. “Similiar to the way New York did after 9-11.”
Bovo, a Republican who has embraced President Donald Trump and is the son of a Bay of Pigs veteran, is specifically targeting his democratic opponent for past positions on law enforcement.
“My opponent in this race has talked about defunding the police, and she may want to walk it back, but she is on record voting to take money from the police department,” he said.
But Levine Cava said she has voted in favor of the county police budget every year — pushing for more officers, trying to turn the tables.
“My opponent defunded police in 2014 and made officers lose pay by making them pay more toward their healthcare costs,” she said.
Current Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has reached his term limit and cannot run again for this seat, creating the vacancy Levine Cava and Bovo are aiming for.
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