Daniella Levine Cava nears petition signature threshold for Miami-Dade Mayor re-election bid

Democratic Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who is running for re-election next year, will hold less sway over the county's law enforcement and elections operations of voters keep her in office. Image via Facebook.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s re-election campaign is just under 3,000 petition signatures shy of making it on the 2024 ballot without having to pay a qualifying fee.

She made history in 2020 by becoming the first-ever candidate for the office to qualify by petition. It looks like she’s about to do it again.

In a statement, Levine Cava attributed her progress in that endeavor this cycle to her grassroots backing in Florida’s most populous county.

“Ours has and always will be a people-powered campaign — and I continue to be humbled by the overwhelming grassroots support we’ve received from voters across Miami-Dade,” she said.

“Thank you to everyone who has signed a petition of support. I look forward to building on our incredible momentum and making history once again as we lead Miami-Dade into the future with vision, integrity, and results.”

In accordance with state and county election rules, a candidate for Mayor must collect and submit the signatures of at least 1% of the county’s total registered voters. In Miami, that number is 15,294.

Levine Cava enjoys support from several worker and social advocacy groups, including AFSCME Florida, the South Florida AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE Local 355, 32BJ SEIU, SAVE Action PAC, Equality Florida Action PAC, Sierra Club and 25 of Miami-Dade’s 34 municipal Mayors.

Three people are running against her. Two are Republicans: Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid and social media influencer Alex Otaola. The other is a fellow Democrat, trapeze artist and self-described “First Amendment auditor” named Miguel “el Skipper” Quintero.

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.