With zero ballots cast, three Miami-Dade commissioners get four more years in office

Three Miami-Dade County commissioners won reelection to new four-year terms on Tuesday after a filing deadline passed with nobody signing up to challenge them.

Automatically reelected at noon were: Oliver Gilbert, the board’s current chair and the District 1 commissioner; Eileen Higgins, the District 5 commissioner; and Kionne McGhee, the District 9 commissioner.

Gilbert, 51, and McGhee, 46, were both elected in 2020 when the county’s two-term limit kicked in and forced the first wave of exits from the 13-seat board. Gilbert represents a district in northern Miami-Dade that includes Miami Gardens. McGhee represents an area in South Miami-Dade that includes parts of Homestead and the neighborhoods of Goulds and Perrine.

Higgins, 59, first won her seat in a special election in 2018 after the prior District 5 commissioner, Bruno Barreiro, resigned to run for Congress. She was reelected in 2020 and is the senior member of the board. Her district spans Biscayne Bay, covering parts of Miami and Miami Beach.

Miami-Dade’s term limit rules make this the final commission election for the three reelected incumbents before they’re required to leave office in 2028.

Though three commissioners were reelected on Tuesday, four others face elections on Aug. 20. The contests are nonpartisan and will end in August if one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. If not, the top two finishers will compete in a November runoff on Election Day.

The 2024 Miami-Dade commission races are:

Audrey Edmonson challenges Keon Hardemon for her old District 3 seat

Miami-Dade’s county charter requires commissioners to leave office after two consecutive four-year terms, but there’s no rule against running in future elections.

Audrey Edmonson, 71, a former District 3 commissioner who left office in 2020, is the first to take advantage of that rule after voter-approved term limits kicked in that year. She’s challenging Commissioner Keon Hardemon, 40, who won the election for the open District 3 seat in 2020 after seven years on the Miami City Commission.

District 3 covers the northern areas of Miami and its adjoining suburbs, including parts of the city’s downtown and the neighborhoods of Liberty City and Brownsville.

Edmonson, a former El Portal mayor, held the District 3 seat for 14 years before voters in 2012 changed the charter to require commissioners to vacate their offices after two consecutive terms.

The current and former commissioners are also competing against Marion Brown, 59, an owner of a construction firm.

Raquel Regalado gets a rematch with Cindy Lerner in District 7

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, 49, barely won her District 7 seat in 2020, and the second-place finisher in that race is back to try again.

Cindy Lerner, 71, who has served as Pinecrest mayor and as a Democratic member of the Florida House, lost to Regalado by 1,301 votes when the seat covering southern Miami and its adjoining suburbs was vacated by a term-limited Xavier Suarez.

Regalado, a former school board member, is also being challenged by Richard Praschnik, 28, a police officer with the county school system who also holds an elected seat on the Kendall Community Council zoning board.

Roberto Gonzalez gets two District 11 challengers in his first election for the County Commission

Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, 37, is the incumbent in the District 11 race, but this will be his first election for the seat representing a suburban area that includes West Kendall.

In November 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Gonzalez, a lawyer and former Republican candidate for the Florida House, to fill the vacant District 11 seat. It had been open for two months after DeSantis suspended the prior commissioner, Joe Martinez, after Martinez’s arrest on corruption charges. Martinez, whose two-term limit expires in November, is a Republican candidate for sheriff while he awaits trial.

Gonzalez had two challengers file for the District 11 race: Bryan Paz-Hernandez, 28, a high school teacher; and Claudia Rainville, 42, an elementary school teacher.

René Garcia gets a challenger who said he ran for president as a joke

Commissioner René Garcia, 49, won his District 13 seat in 2020, and four years later he faces a challenger seeking his first elected office.

Ian Anthony Medina, 30, said he’s pursuing a masters in business while seeking a seat on the commission. A Federal Election Commission database shows in March he registered a committee to run as a nonpartisan candidate for U.S. president in 2024, but Medina said Tuesday “that was just a joke.”

Medina was in the news in 2022 during a failed run for the Miami Lakes town council when he was arrested on charges of practicing law without a license. Court records show the case was closed under a diversion program that allows defendants to avoid convictions. Medina said he was required to complete courses on legal ethics and volunteer for community service. He was the final commission candidate to make the Aug. 20 ballot, with the Elections Department posting his status as qualified shortly before 6 p.m.