Daniella Levine Cava re-election campaign to host Saturday petition-collecting event

Daniella Levine Cava has proven to be a powerhouse fundraiser. Image via Daniella Levine Cava for Mayor.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is ramping up her re-election campaign with a petition-gathering event.

She’s hosting her first “Petition Day of Action” Saturday morning to help her get on the 2024 ballot. Co-hosts include the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, SEIU Florida, Blue Wave Coalition and Ruth’s List Florida.

“In 2020, we became the first Miami-Dade mayoral campaign to qualify for the ballot by petition — and we’re going to do it again,” Levine Cava told Florida Politics by text.

“With just under a year until Election Day, I’m excited to have early support from the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, SEIU Florida, Ruth’s List Florida, Blue Wave Coalition, and other grassroots volunteers to gather signatures, engage voters, and get them fired up and inspired early to win the future of Miami-Dade.”

The event begins at 10 a.m. at the Mayor’s campaign headquarters in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. Levine Cava and others will deliver remarks at 10:30 a.m., followed by a canvassing effort in which volunteers and supporters will join her in visiting “high traffic areas in the community” to seek petition signatures.

Those areas include the city of Coral Gables, unincorporated Dadeland area and the Miami neighborhoods of Brickell, Coconut Grove, Downtown, Midtown and Wynwood.

Canvassing will run until 2 p.m., after which volunteers are welcome back to Levine Cava’s campaign office for a social hour and pizza party with her team.

To get onto the ballot without paying a qualifying fee, candidates for Miami-Dade Mayor must receive and submit to the county Elections Department at least 15,294 signatures — representing 1% of the total number of registered electors in the county — by April 30, 2024.

Levine Cava made history in November 2020, when she won election with 54% of the vote to become Miami-Dade’s first woman Mayor and the first Jewish person to hold the job.

So far, two people have filed to run against her: Republican social media influencer and political commentator Alex Otaola and Miguel Quintero, a Democratic trapeze artist who decided to run after dealing with repeat permitting issues at his home-based circus school.

Republican Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid told Florida Politics this month he is “definitely leaning toward running.” Other Republicans rumored to be mulling bids include Miami-Dade Commissioner René García, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, Levine Cava’s immediate predecessor as Mayor.