Miami Mayor Suarez endorses Trump for 2024, saying he's the "only candidate" for the job
MIAMI — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez endorsed former President Donald Trump's 2024 bid on Friday, citing immigration as one of the top reasons for his support.
"After seeing both our current President and President Trump at the border, and having been there myself last week, it is evident to me that the only candidate that will keep our country safe, our border secured, reduce inflation and can coherently lead our country forward is President Donald J. Trump," Suarez shared on X.
Suarez — a Republican of Cuban descent who briefly ran for the GOP nomination in 2023 as the party's only Latino candidate, CBS News Miami's news partners at the Miami Herald noted — added that he's looking forward to helping Trump campaign on his "strong record" that's in contrast with the Biden administration, and that he also hopes to help him and the Republican Party win a "larger share" of Hispanic and young voters across cities and urban centers.
The endorsement came just a day after both Trump and Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border in overlapping events, in a split screen emblematic of the political moment at two different Texas border towns.
According to the Herald, Trump and Republicans expanded their support among Latino voters in Miami-Dade County and across Florida, as both the GOP and Democratic Parties continued their outreach efforts to win over the demographic that makes up over a fourth of the state's population. In November 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won Miami-Dade County with big support from Latino voters by the biggest margin of any Republican governor in decades.
The Herald reached out to the Trump campaign for comment regarding Suarez's endorsement but had not heard back from them.