Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is the latest Republican to jump into the jam-packed 2024 GOP presidential race. Why is he throwing his hat in the ring? “I look different, I sound different, and I can also bring different people to the Republican party,” he tells Forbes.
Suarez has been mayor of Miami since 2017, after clinching reelection in 2021. The role is reportedly largely ceremonial, and fellow Florida Republican, Congressman Rep. Carlos Gimenez, seems to agree with that characterization. “I don’t think that he’s qualified to be president of the United States in any way, shape, or form,” Gimenez told Fox News, adding that the Miami mayor “has very little power.” Suarez remains undeterred, responding that he has the experience to be our commander in chief “in droves.” As a mayor, he tells Forbes Newsroom, “I understand this country in a way that I think no other candidate does.”
The Cuban American mayor discusses on Forbes Newsroom a litany of issues he that believes face the United States, one of the most pressing being immigration. The Florida Republican believes he is the contender in the 2024 race who is best-equipped to handle what he described as the crisis at the southern border. “As a Hispanic, you can talk directly to those immigrants in their native language, understanding the nuances and the differences from the countries that they come from, and also crafting a … foreign policy that addresses that.”
As of this writing, former President Donald Trump remains the far and away frontrunner of the GOP 2024 primary race – despite being indicted for the second time in the same calendar year. A fellow Floridian, Governor Ron DeSantis, trails the former president in a solid second place in multiple national polls. As for the rest of the competition? They are all polling in single digits. How will Suarez, the latest Republican to enter the race with arguably the smallest national profile, carve out a lane for himself? “In this race, it’s one where I’d rather be a little bit less known and exciting than better known and unexciting … I’m fresh, I’m new, I want to come in and I want to go in one direction — up.”
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