Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is first Hispanic to enter 2024 presidential race

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced his 2024 presidential bid at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Thursday night.

At only 45 years old, he is the first Hispanic candidate to jump into the Republican primary race for the 2024 cycle.

In his first speech as a 2024 presidential campaign, Suarez touted Miami as a shining example of economic flourishment, an example of good governance that contradict the Biden administration’s policies.

“Miami’s success and its record of success should not be an outlier in America. It should be commonplace across our country,” said Suarez, a Republican who is governing Miami in his second term.

“In Miami, we didn’t wait for Washington. We chose to lead. While Washington flirts with fiscal disaster and dysfunction, we chose fiscal sanity,” he said.

The Miami mayor’s speech was delivered a few hours after he tweeted a video declaring his candidacy. On Wednesday, he filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to formalize his bid, a move that puts him in direct competition with his state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and Palm Beach resident, former President Donald Trump’s

Suarez is the son of Xavier Suarez, was elected as Miami’s first Cuban American mayor from 1985-1993, and then served again briefly from 1997-1998. He also served as a Miami-Dade Commissioner for the county’s 7th district from 2011-2020.

When his son Francis ran in 2017, he emerged victorious by a landslide, winning 85.8% of the vote.

He then aimed toward a metropolitan economic revitalization for the city by pushing cryptocurrency after he was reelected in 2021 in an attempt to draw technology business to the South Florida city.

“Now is the time for our nation to embrace an innovation driven economic policy for the next generation,” Suarez said to his audience at the Reagan library as he made his case for the presidency.

“It’s time for a leader who can connect with segments of our country that Republicans have historically lost, like young voters and urban voters and segments we can make gains with, like Hispanics and suburban women,” he said.

Suarez will have an uphill battle against his Republican rivals. Current polls show Trump with a huge lead with DeSantis following. Other entrants include Vice President Mike Pence former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.