MIAMI (WSVN) - It’s almost time for Miami voters to voice their choice for mayor, and two contenders stated their case as to why they’re the right person to lead the Magic City.
Miami’s mayoral race is one of the most competitive in South Florida during this election cycle. Voters will head to the polls starting this weekend to elect their next mayor.
One of the candidates, Xavier Suarez, has had the job before. He said that experience will help him if he’s elected again.
“As one of my ads says, I’m the old sheriff that’s back, and I’m the new sheriff,” he said. “I’m pretty tough. I can put my foot down if they get out of hand.”
Suarez, whose son Francis is the current mayor of Miami, served two terms in the mayor’s office 40 years ago.
Suarez said he wants to cut costs and make use of city staff, with a goal of saving the taxpayers money.
“i’ll be a micromanager, and don’t hire too many consultants, folks,” he said. “We have a good staff, 4,000 employeesm and we should do things in-house.”
Suarez said his experience in the mayor’s office as the city’s first Cuban born mayor, along with his nine years of service on the Miami-Dade County Commission, give him the knowledge he needs to have the job again.
“Property tax reform is extremely important, and ‘attention to the neighborhoods,’ that’s also my slogan. I’m a mayor for all the neighborhoods,” he said.
Former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell’s political career started in Merrie Christmas Park after he discovered it was contaminated around 10 years ago. He said the city wasn’t doing anything about it.
“So I organized my neighborhood. We went to City Hall, and we pushed the city to clean up our park,” he said. “I found out there were five other contaminated parks, and I decided to run for office in the City of Miami. I became the local commissioner, and I wrote all of the environmental laws that we have now that protect our trees and water and air.”
Russell served on the city commission from 2015 to 2022. Now he wants to focus on affordablity, while also changing the city’s culture.
“Miami’s really hurting. There’s a lot of frustration; people are having trouble affording the rent or the mortgage,” he said. “What I say is that we can’t afford the corruption, and that’s the hardest thing to change. It’s a systemic change that needs to happen in the City of Miami, so that the old dynasties move out and new blood comes in.”
Russell hopes he can be that fresh blood in the mayor’s office.
“The systemic revolving door is inherent to our charter, our constitution … because we don’t have real term limits,” he said, “so when I’m on the ballot next month, on the ballot with me will be real term limits, so I hope that people come and vote for that, as well as me.”
7News had hoped to also interview candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla for this story, but he canceled four separate scheduled interviews before our deadline.
Early voting for Miami residents begins Saturday. Election Day is Nov. 4.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.