Weeks after a loss in Surfside, Shlomo Danzinger files to run for Miami-Dade mayor
Weeks after losing his reelection bid for Surfside mayor, Shlomo Danzinger is running to oust Daniella Levine Cava as mayor of Miami-Dade County.
A Republican, Danzinger endorsed Levine Cava, a Democrat, while he was Surfside’s mayor, a post he won in 2022 in an upset over the incumbent, Charles Burkett. Last month, Burkett challenged Danzinger and won.
Danzinger joins a Republican-heavy field of challengers for Levine Cava, including Manny Cid, the mayor of Miami Lakes, and Alexander Otaola, the conservative host of the Spanish-language YouTube show “Hola Ota-ola.” All candidates for mayor face each other in the nonpartisan Aug. 20 county election, followed by a November runoff between the top two finishers if nobody gets more than 50% of the vote.
Danzinger, 44, was not available for comment on Tuesday. He was one of 25 sitting mayors to endorse Levine Cava, 68, in September. The mayor’s campaign released the endorsements shortly after Cid joined the race.
Surfside is one of Miami-Dade’s smallest municipalities, with a population of about 5,500 people. Burkett took 52% of the vote against Danzinger’s 48% in the town’s March 19 election, and the Levine Cava campaign pointed to those results in minimizing the former mayor’s entry into the 2024 race.
“The voters of Surfside spoke clearly earlier this year and there is no doubt Miami-Dade voters will join them in sending the same message regarding our new opponent,” the campaign said in a statement.
The mayoral election now includes two candidates whose Jewish faith brought them electoral firsts: Levine Cava as the county’s first Jewish mayor, and Danzinger as Surfside’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor.
READ MORE: It’s mayor versus mayor in 2024 as Levine Cava gets a GOP challenger from Miami Lakes
Levine Cava won Surfside’s lone voting precinct by 15 points in the 2020 election, then rose to national prominence less than a year later there as the public face of Miami-Dade’s response to the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo complex. Burkett, who has no party affiliation, was Surfside’s mayor at the time. He said Tuesday that he has already endorsed Levine Cava.
Danzinger took office in 2022. He led Surfside through the aftermath of the collapse, including approving development plans at the condo site and pushing for stricter rules on building safety.
A year before the Florida Legislature passed a crackdown on homeless people spending the night on public property, Danzinger championed a local law change making it harder for people to bathe in showers at town beaches or sleep outside in Surfside.
He also pledged to reduce the bickering that often defined Surfside town council meetings while Burkett was mayor. Friction continued, with Danzinger declining to support flying a gay-rights Pride flag at the town’s community center and asking whether anyone knew “how to speak Spanish” to communicate with a bilingual town commissioner.
With Danzinger’s filing, the mayoral race now has seven candidates, including Carlos Garín, a former telenovela actor who ran for county commission in 2018; Miguel “el Skipper” Quintero, who runs a trapeze school at his home; and Eddy Rojas, owner of a valet-parking business.
This article was updated to correct the party affiliation of Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett, who is not a member of a political party.
