Jesse Scheckner
Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey amassed more than $100,000 in his first 72 hours running for Florida’s 27th Congressional District.
That’s according to a press note from his campaign, which attributes the haul to widespread support and South Florida’s “readiness to elect a problem solver focused on getting things done for people, not sowing chaos and dysfunction.”
Davey is running to unseat GOP U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, whom he criticized in his campaign launch last week for what he sees as hypocrisy on federal funding and opposition to socialism.
“Unlike María Elvira Salazar, who puts her extreme partisanship and corporate donors first, I’ve dedicated my career to serving others, listening to the community’s needs, solving problems, and getting results,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“I’m humbled by the incredible show of early support we’ve received thus far because our community deserves a representative who puts people ahead of politics. I’m running for Congress to ensure everyone, including my 14-year-old daughter, has the opportunity to get ahead without fear of their rights and freedoms being taken away.”
A Republican-turned-Democrat, Davey is a self-described moderate who in recent years grew increasingly estranged from the GOP. He supported Barack Obama in 2008 and switched parties after the election of Donald Trump when, according to his campaign website, his daughter asked him “why Trump hates her because she’s not White.”
He is the son of first-generation American parents and grew up in a working-class home. Today, he works as an employment lawyer. He met his wife, Maria, after she fled Peru during the height of the Shining Path’s terrorist attacks and later became a stepfather to her son before the couple had a daughter together.
Davey will face at least one opponent in the Democratic Primary: Miami-Dade School Board member Lucia Báez-Geller, who holds an early lead in funding and endorsements.
But a pair of noteworthy Democrats are already voicing support for Davey: former state Rep. Nick Duran, whose district included Key Biscayne, and Cecelia Tavera Webman, a Democratic activist and community organizer from Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood.
As of Dec. 31, Salazar held $1.3 million toward her re-election bid, including $267,000 she raised last quarter. Baez-Geller, meanwhile, raised $102,500 between when she announced her candidacy on Nov. 9 and New Year’s Eve.
CD 27 covers Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated Miami-Dade County neighborhoods.
The Primary Election is on Aug. 20, followed by the General Election Nov. 5.
