Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is the latest Republican to join a growing field of candidates challenging former President Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024.
The only Latino candidate in the race, Suarez filed paperwork Wednesday to launch his run and is expected to formally announce his candidacy at an event at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, Thursday. But with little national name recognition and a bevy of other candidates already fighting to increase single-digit poll numbers, his campaign is a long shot.
A video released by a pro-Suarez super PAC Wednesday touts his support for law enforcement and tough-on-crime platform, which he points to as the source of decreasing violent crime rates in the city in 2023. He’s also taken shots at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is currently running in consistent second in the primary, on issues from his lack of Covid-19 mitigation measures to how he’s handling his ongoing feud with Disney.
Suarez is likely to face questions about possible corruption as he tries for the nomination. He is under investigation by the Miami-Dade ethics commission for his work for Miami real estate developer Rishi Kapoor, who is being investigated by the FBI and SEC. Kapoor allegedly paid Suarez $10,000 per month to aid him in securing government permits for an urban real estate project.
Suarez’s entry nevertheless adds to the competition against Trump, whom some Republicans see as a liability in a general election. Not only is Trump the subject of several ongoing civil and criminal investigations, but he’s broadly unpopular. He lost his reelection bid in 2020, and his chosen candidates broadly underperformed in the 2022 midterms.
Still, it’s been a tough primary so far for anyone who’s not Trump. The former president, who announced his candidacy in November, has been increasingly dominant in polling. His closest competitor, DeSantis, is trailing him by more than 30 percentage points on average as of mid-June.
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