TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A super PAC supporting Miami GOP Mayor Francis Suarez on Wednesday dropped a slick two-minute video just a day before he’s set to announce a possible 2024 presidential bid.
The super PAC is expected to use the video, which touts dropping crime rates in Miami while adding that “conservative mayor Francis Suarez chose a better path for Miami,” in digital ads in three key early nominating states.
Suarez, the son of Miami’s first Cuban-American mayor, was elected twice as the mayor, including a resounding 2021 reelection. If he jumps into the race for president, he will become the third candidate from Florida seeking the GOP nomination, along with former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Suarez would also become the first Hispanic candidate seeking the nomination for either party this cycle. But it could be an uphill climb to gain traction in a race that already features current and former governors as well as a sitting U.S. senator.
The super PAC behind the video — SOS America — recently rebranded itself. It was set up last year as America for Everyone, which raised roughly $6 million in 2022, including from donors who had supported Suarez’s reelection, according to the Miami Herald. The Herald also reported that one of the donors had lobbied Suarez and the Miami city commission on a land deal.
Right before the 2022 election, the super PAC ran radio ads in the congressional race between GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar and Democrat Annette Taddeo.
If Suarez runs, he will have to navigate a Republican Party where a large portion is loyal to Trump. He has previously said that did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020, although he has been complimentary of the former president recently.
Kellyanne Conway, a former counselor to Trump, told POLITICO last month that she has recommended to Trump that he put Suarez on the “short, short list” for vice president. Suarez, however, told a South Florida television reporter last week that “if I run to be the president, it’s because that’s the goal. … You never run for a parlay, for a second place.”