SAVE Action PAC backs ‘inclusive leader’ Daniella Levine Cava for re-election as Miami-Dade Mayor

Daniella Levine Cava's first budget includes a flat tax, pay raises.

As she seeks re-election, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava can again rely on support from the political spending arm of South Florida’s longest-running LGBTQ advocacy group.

SAVE Action PAC has once more endorsed Levine Cava for the county’s top elected office, citing her progressive policies as key.

“(We are) thrilled to once again support a visionary and inclusive leader like Daniella Levine Cava,” Orlando Gonzales, Executive Director of SAVE, said in a statement.

“Mayor Levine Cava has been a lifelong champion in the fight for equality and we look forward to continuing our shared work to make Miami-Dade a more inclusive home for all.”

A lawyer by training and nonprofit founder and director by longtime practice, Levine Cava won election to the Miami-Dade Commission in 2014 and was the first person elected to the dais to file an LGBTQ-focused measure there.

Such measures included a resolution urging the federal government to condemn the Cuban regime for actions against LGBTQ people and another recognizing every June as LGBTQ Pride Month.

Elected as Miami-Dade’s first woman and Jewish Mayor in 2020, when SAVE Action PAC also endorsed her, Levine Cava held the first Pride flag event at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami.

She’s since made it a tradition. At the flag-raising event this past June, she said, “We say gay. We say trans,” referring to Florida’s expanded Parental Rights in Education law that, among other things, restricts LGBTQ-inclusive instruction and policies in all public school grades.

She called the SAVE endorsement — which joins other nods this month from the Sierra Club, South Florida AFL-CIO, Unite Here Local 355 and a passel of municipal Mayors — “deeply personal.”

“Years ago, my daughter couldn’t legally get married in Florida, and she told me: ‘Mom, fix it,’” she said in a statement.

“SAVE’s mission helped inspire me to run for elected office in the first place — to protect the rights of all our residents and to ensure that everyone in this community can love who they love and be who they are, free from judgment, discrimination, or violence. I am proud to stand alongside SAVE Action Pac and SAVE members as we continue the fight for equal rights across South Florida.”

So far, three people have filed to challenge Levine Cava. Two are Republicans: social media influencer Alex Otaola and Republican Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid. The other, a trapeze artist and self-described “First Amendment auditor” named Miguel “el Skipper” Quintero, is a fellow Democrat.

The race is technically nonpartisan, meaning that they will win outright if any candidate secures more than 50% of the vote during the Aug. 20, 2024, Primary Election. If none do so, the two candidates with the most Primary votes will compete in a runoff culminating in the General Election on Nov. 5, 2024.