Francis Suarez

The oldest of four siblings, Suarez is the son of Rita and Xavier Suarez, two-time Miami mayor. His aunt, Lala, is the mother of U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney from West Virginia.[1]

Suarez attended Immaculata-LaSalle High School. He graduated in 1996 and went on to graduate in the top 10% of his class from Florida International University (FIU) with a bachelor's degree in finance. Following college, Suarez chose to attend the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, receiving his J.D. degree cum laude in 2004.[2]

After law school, Suarez became an attorney with the law firm Greenspoon Marder, specializing in corporate and real estate transactions.[2]

In 2021, Suarez joined Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan's newly-established Miami office.[3] On July 1, 2023, due to his ongoing presidential candidacy, Suarez went on unpaid leave from the firm.[4]

In 1998, Suarez's father, Xavier Suarez, was removed from Miami's mayoral office by a Florida circuit court. The court found that Joe Carollo's lawsuit alleging voter fraud in the first round of the mayoral election had merit.[5] During the lawsuit, the younger Suarez was a 20-year-old sophomore at FIU. Suarez was confronted with witness signatures for invalid absentee ballots by Carollo's lawyers. The signatory "F. Suarez" did not reside at any of the addresses given. Suarez denied any involvement with witnessing absentee ballots.[6] Observers found that the sample of signatures given by Suarez did bear some resemblance to the signatures on the witness ballots.[7]

Before serving in city government, Suarez first served on his local homeowner association. Suarez cited a home burglary that he had suffered as his motivation for getting involved.[8]

Suarez was first elected to the Miami City Commission's District 4 seat in 2009. in a special election to replace Tomás Regalado, who had resigned to serve as mayor. The initial round of the election was held was on November 3, 2009. Suarez advanced to a runoff election against Manolo Reyes after receiving 44.74% of the vote in the initial round, with Reyes receiving 40.50%, Denis Rod receiving 5.15% and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts receiving 9.61%.[9] His district represented portions of the city's westernmost reaches.[8] The runoff election was on November 17, 2009. Suarez won with 51.41% of the vote. He was subsequently reelected unopposed in both 2011 and 2015.[10]

In January 2013, the Miami Herald wrote that in his first three years on the City Commission, "Suarez has had mixed results passing policy." Suarez introduced a controversial motion that was passed by the City Commission which resulted in a decrease to city employees salaries. He also was an advocate for changes that were made to the zoning code of the city aimed at easing the ability to construct affordable housing. However, Suarez was unsuccessful in a push to move the city from using a weak mayor form of government to adopting a strong mayor form of government.[8]

Suarez was initially a close ally of Mayor Regaldo. In late 2011, Regaldo asked Suarez to hold the chairmanship of the City Commission. After Regaldo was at odds with Police Chief Miguel Exposito, Suarez introduced a controversial motion to fire Exposito, which was passed by the City Commission. However, in mid-2012, Suarez became critical of Regaldo's leadership, attacking high turnover among Regaldo's staff and questioning the finance department's ability to balance the city's budget on time.[8] Suarez even came to criticize Regaldo's feud with former police chief Exposito.[11] Suarez ultimately announced a campaign to unseat Regaldo in the 2013 mayoral election.[8]

Suarez was an opponent of red light cameras in the city, which had become a controversial issue in Miami.[12]

Official portrait, 2017

Suarez was elected mayor of Miami in the 2017 election.[16] The Miami Herald noted that his candidacy benefited from a strong effort to motivate voters to cast absentee ballots for him.[17] Suarez is Miami's first local-born mayor.[18] He is also the first mayor to not be born in Cuba since 1996, when mayor Stephen P. Clark died in office. Suarez was re-elected in the 2021 Miami mayoral election, receiving over 78% of the vote in the first ballot.[19]

Miami has a weak mayor system under which the mayor holds little authority,[20] The city's mayoralty is a part-time position and does not have power over the city's administration. Its limited powers include a veto over city commission legislation and the ability to declare emergencies. The mayor of Miami can also hire and fire the city manager who runs Miami's government, though the city commissioners have the ability to overrule a mayor's choice.[21]

In June 2020, Suarez was elected by American mayors to serve as the second vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors[22] and in June 2021, he was elected as the first vice president of the organization.[23] From June 2022 to June 2023, he served as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.[24]

Suarez was included in Fortune magazine's 2021 list of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders".[25]

The Suarez for President campaign logo

Suarez speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Palm Springs, Florida on the campaign trail on 16 July 2023

In April 2021, reports that Suarez could serve as a running-mate to potential 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley emerged.[65] A report by The Hill in September 2021 indicated that Suarez was interested in running for president in his own right.[66] Suarez spoke on Fox News Sunday on June 11, 2023, touting visits to early primary states, saying "when I take the message to people, they want to hear more." He urged people to tune into a speech he is due to give at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on June 15, calling it a "big speech" about the "future of our country," the clearest indication yet of a presidential campaign announcement.[67] Suarez filed to run for president with the Federal Election Commission on June 14[68] and officially launched his bid the next day.[69]

While appearing on Hugh Hewitt's podcast on June 27, 2023, Hewitt asked Suarez about the ongoing persecution of the Uyghur people in China, to which Suarez asked "What's a Uyghur?" Suarez then assured Hewitt that he would research the ethnic group. After the podcast concluded and news of the gaffe broke, Suarez told the media that he was confused by Hewitt's pronunciation of the term 'Uyghur' and is very familiar with the crisis.[70]

On July 5, 2023, a super PAC supporting Suarez launched a chatbot that uses his face and voice to answer questions about his campaign. The bot directs users to campaign videos based on the questions asked, and is capable of mocking other presidential candidates such as Ron DeSantis. The program is one of a number of examples of the use of artificial intelligence in the 2024 election, with major presidential contenders DeSantis and Trump using text-to-image models in official campaign videos.[71][72]

On August 4, Suarez announced that his campaign would accept donations in Bitcoin, as part of his pro-cryptocurrency platform. Suarez argues that cryptocurrency "Is a process of developing technologies that are going to create democratizing opportunities for wealth creation and are not manipulated by a human being's ulterior motives, political goals, etc."[73][74] He also stated on August 23, that if elected president, he will accept part of the presidential salary in Bitcoin.[75]

On August 8, Suarez announced that he had met the donor requirements to attend the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee. However, the RNC had to verify this claim before he could be officially added to the roster.[76] He stated in an interview with The Hill that if he did not qualify for the first debate, he may leave the race.[77] Besides having 40,000 unique donors from 20 different states, the other requirement to attend a debate was to be consistently present in polls, which he was not. A super PAC backing Suarez, the SOS America PAC, complained that Suarez was being excluded from polls saying that the zero and one percent that he was polling at was not reflective of his true popularity.[78] Suarez himself argued that the polling requirement was unfair for "relatively unknown" figures such as himself who are competing against candidates who have been national figures for years.[79]

In addition to saying he would drop out if he did not meet the debate requirements, Suarez also called upon all other candidates to drop out if they failed to qualify for the debate at an event in Iowa. Suarez argues that "if you can’t meet the minimum thresholds, you shouldn’t be trying to take the time involved away from being productive.”[79][80] Suarez did not meet the minimum thresholds and did not qualify for the first Republican debate on August 23.[81]

Following his failure to meet the guidelines to attend the first debate, and his call that all candidates that cannot reach these guidelines drop out, Suarez was called upon to follow his own suggestion and drop out of the race by the Miami Herald, Business Insider, Fox News, and Congressman Carlos A. Giménez.[82][83][84][85] Suarez would stay true to his promise and suspended his campaign on August 29, 2023, becoming the first in the 2024 race to drop out.[86]

During his campaign Suarez promised ten dollar gift cards to people who gave a one dollar donation to his campaign. However, he has yet to fulfill these promises, and many of his supporters are still waiting for their gift cards and Suarez, and his campaign, has refused to comment on the issue.[87]

Suarez identifies himself as a conservative Republican.[88] According to an analyst for FiveThirtyEight, Suarez's "policies remain conservative (lowering taxes and keeping them low has been a focus of his administration, for example), but he takes a slightly more moderate stance on issues like climate change and immigration."[89] He has said climate change is real and he declared a climate emergency in Miami.[89][90][91] However, Suarez has also criticized climate activists for being alarmist about the impacts that they expect climate change will have on Miami.[92]

Suarez has supported LGBT pride events. He supported the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act as originally signed, which prohibited some classroom instruction on LGBT issues from kindergarten through third grade.[93][94] However, he opposed its later expansion to all grades.[95][96][97]

Suarez identifies as "pro-life" or anti-abortion and supported the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision which had legalized abortion nationwide.[98] He announced that he supports a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.[99] Suarez would not say whether he supported a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, saying instead, "the country is not there yet."[100]

Suarez, a first generation Cuban American, criticized the idea of repealing the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship during his presidential campaign. Suarez noted that without birthright citizenship he would have lacked American citizenship.[101] He also argued that refugees from Venezuela should be granted temporary protected status in the US.[89]

• List of mayors of the 50 largest cities in the United States

• Miami Mayor's website
• Appearances on C-SPAN