Because the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, 44, is the proper politician for his crypto-bro, high-spending, hard-partying, tech-savvy, enterprise capital constituency.
Fueled by his recognition — he received his first election in 2017 by 86% and his reelection in 2021 with over 78% of the vote — Suarez’s identify has additionally been kicked round as one of many prime Republican contenders to observe in 2024 and 2028, with rumors he may be part of Nikki Haley’s presidential ticket ought to she run, and even emerge as a presidential candidate himself.
When requested what the post-Trump GOP appears like, the primary era American-turned politician (his dad and mom each fled Cuba for Miami) speaks of a kinder, gentler Republican occasion.
“The post-Trump GOP must have aspirational, inspirational management,” Suarez declares, from his HQ in Coconut Grove, Fla. “To me, it appears like somebody that leans into innovation. To me, it appears like somebody that understands our main demographic minorities, like Hispanics.”
When requested if he sees himself on this position, Suarez stated, “the concept of serving at the next degree sooner or later is thrilling. The truth that folks discuss it’s thrilling.
“However I don’t need to do it for the sake of doing it,” he provides. “Too many individuals keep in politics as an arrogance undertaking or as a result of they need to be necessary. I positively really feel a need to do extra, however I’ve additionally been round politics my complete life. So, I do know political alternative is about timing and circumstance, as properly.”
Suarez is a part of the primary father-and-son crew to be mayor of the town of Miami. His father, Cuban-born Xavier Suarez, held that position from 1985 to 1993 and once more in 1997 (though he was faraway from workplace after the election was invalidated as a result of huge poll fraud; Suarez was not implicated within the wrongdoing), in addition to serving as Miami-Dade County Commissioner from 2011 to 2020.
The junior Suarez has additionally distinguished himself because the “first” in two different classes: The primary American politician to get COVID and the primary mayor to take his wage in cryptocurrency (New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams shortly adopted go well with).
“I by no means thought in 1,000,000 years that I might be well-known for getting sick,” Suarez notes of his COVID analysis on March 13, 2020, 4 days after he met with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his workers. “It was exhausting as a result of I didn’t know what to anticipate. And so, I took an opportunity and produced a video diary day-after-day that I had COVID. And since I used to be one of many first folks in Miami-Dade County to check optimistic, it gave folks hope that you can get COVID, and it wasn’t a dying sentence.”
“Sadly, many individuals did succumb to the illness, together with relations of mine. However I used to be asymptomatic fortunately, and it led folks to imagine that there was going to be a big class of those who had been asymptomatic, too.”
Suarez additionally turned COVID into a chance for Miami, when he requested, “How Can I Assist?” in response to a December 4, 2020, tweet posed by Delian Asparouhov, who works on the Founders Fund with tech innovators Peter Thiel and Keith Rabois. The tweet said, “Okay guys hear me out, what if we transfer Silicon Valley to Miami?”
Everybody was shocked when the Tweet went viral, together with Suarez, who has now slapped his “How Can I Assist” slogan onto socks and t-shirts.
With the concept of Silicon Valley relocating to Miami seeded, Suarez subsequent took out a billboard in San Francisco, telling anybody who wished to maneuver to Miami to DM him. And plenty of have.
Miami now boasts a thriving tech and Crypto neighborhood with residents like Thiel, Rabois, Lucy Guo and extra. In June 2021, he additionally lured the Bitcoin Convention from LA to Miami, attracting over 12,000 attendees escaping strict COVID restrictions. Simply final week, the convention returned to Miami with over 50,000 pumped-up crypto fanatics.
“If you see elected officers in San Francisco saying, ‘F Elon Musk,’ he will get the message and leaves. That’s not the suitable perspective. That’s not essentially American. The American dream is the concept your tomorrows are higher than your yesterdays. As a first-generation American, I’m dismayed generally by the anti-American sentiment and divisiveness that we see on this nation, as a result of our enemies need us to be divided. We’re much less highly effective as a rustic once we’re divided.”
Though the mayoral place is nonpartisan, Suarez is a Republican, who isn’t a fan of Trump’s ways (he stated he’s extra of a Reagan Republican). Suarez famously didn’t vote for President Trump in 2020. “I agreed with numerous issues concerning the former president from a coverage perspective: Transferring the embassy to Jerusalem, the Abraham Accords, clearly the tax lower, having a robust overseas coverage. From a character perspective, that’s the place I had a tough time. When you’re making an attempt to be abrasive or making an attempt to create battle, I simply don’t see that being wholesome for America.”
He’s additionally clashed with Florida’s equally formidable governor Ron DeSantis over masks mandates. The governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice has additionally deflated a few of Miami’s efforts to proceed to draw new residents, conventions and enterprise alternatives, Suarez stated.
“My perspective is that we don’t need little children being taught about sexuality within the classroom,” stated Suarez, who’s married with two children. “We wish dad and mom to try this. However we additionally need to be a rustic that’s pro-equal rights for the LGBTQ neighborhood, which is what Miami is about. And I feel whether or not it’s equality in housing or equality in job alternative, the LGBTQ neighborhood is a neighborhood that could be a giant stakeholder on this nation and deserves to be handled with respect and kindness as we do right here in our metropolis. This goes again to conflicted management, versus persuasive management and aspirational management.”
Mayor Adams has seized on the controversy with a latest marketing campaign to draw Floridians to the Massive Apple with strategically positioned billboards and social media aimed on the disheartened LGBTQ neighborhood.
“I’m not shocked,” Suarez says of the transfer. “The mayor and I’ve each taken benefit of aggressive alternatives to attempt to entice residents. And I don’t blame him for doing the identical. And I feel that’s the implications generally of those cultural wars that seep into economics.”
One other situation hounding Suarez is that the town’s experiment in MiamiCoin, which Suarez has been hyping since 2021, appears to be a catastrophe. Created by the nonprofit startup CityCoins, the municipal digital token launched in Miami in August 2021 (CityCoins debuted NYCCoin in New York final November.) The thought is that non-public residents mine the coin, and 30% of the earnings are donated to every metropolis.
“The thought was good, within the sense of making this profit for cities,” Suarez explains, “however I feel a few of the execution was flawed. It’s a bit of too inflationary. There are 3.65 billion excellent MiamiCoins on the market, which created an excessive amount of provide, which then depresses the value.” At present MiamiCoin is price a few quarter of a cent. The digital forex peaked at 5 cents per coin in September earlier than flatlining in the beginning of 2022. Though the non-public sector is shedding out, since its inception, the Metropolis of Miami has acquired $5.25 million from MiamiCoin.
So far as taking his wage in Bitcoin, that solely represents a 3rd of his revenue. The place is part-time, and the mayor is allowed to carry different jobs. Which Suarez does, fairly lucratively as a lawyer at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Senior Working Accomplice at non-public fairness agency DaGrosa Capital Companions LLC. The mayoral wage of $97,000 per yr is his lowest paycheck.
Suarez additionally serves because the President of the US Convention of Mayors. “In that position, I’m making an attempt to create an agenda for America that’s primarily based on a set of actually fundamental rules, like conserving taxes low and investing in police. As a substitute of defunding police, up-funding police or investing in police, which retains our cities protected, which is what we’ve seen in Miami. After which leaning into innovation.”
And whereas, like a real politician, Suarez received’t decide to operating in 2024 or 2028, he has sturdy concepts about what these subsequent elections ought to appear to be: “Individuals are thirsting for a brand new era of leaders, and it stays to be seen whether or not 2024 might be a generational election or not. Will or not it’s one other election of Child Boomers, or will or not it’s a brand new era of leaders?
“I see a bunch of voters that need to be unified, that need to be impressed, which can be a bit non-traditional of their views, however are fiscally conservative. They agree on the suitable ranges of immigration that’s wholesome for our financial system they usually need a sturdy overseas coverage. The following candidate for president wants to grasp these generational wants.”
