Miami Mayor Francis Suarez joins 2024 Republican presidential race

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Thursday joined the fast-growing 2024 Republican presidential race.

The little-known GOP leader becomes the first Latino and the third Florida resident to jump into the contest behind former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Republican presidential candidate Miami Mayor Francis Suarez speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, March 3, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (Alex Brandon/AP)

“America’s so-called leaders confuse being loud with actually leading,” Suarez said in a video announcing his campaign. “All Washington wants to do is fight with each other instead of fighting for the people that put them in office.”

Suarez oversaw security arrangements for Trump’s historic arraignment on federal criminal charges this week, which went off mostly smoothly with smaller than expected crowds of protesters.

Suarez, 45, is a two-term mayor of the diverse and growing city, providing a sharp contrast with many of the other Republican candidates in the race.

He faces an uphill struggle to even get face time in the race that is dominated by heavy hitters like Trump, who polls say has the support of more than 50% of GOP voters, and DeSantis, who is far ahead of the rest of the pack.

To qualify for the first Republican debate in August, Suarez will need to reach a minimum of 1% in at least three national polls and garner a minimum of 40,000 unique donors, a tall order for someone whom few voters have even heard of.

He would not appear to have a strong appeal to Republican voters in the conservative heartland state of Iowa, which kicks off the race with a caucus, or the first-in-the-nation GOP primary in New Hampshire.

But like others, Suarez may hope to grab some early attention and then gain traction in what could turn into a wide open primary fight if Trump falters or drops out of the race due to his mounting legal woes.

Suarez is the son of former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez, who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba after the communist revolution. He is the third Cuban-American to run for president after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) lost to Trump in 2016.

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