Jesse Scheckner
Ryan Huntington won a Special Election for a seven-month term on the Biscayne Park Commission — by a landslide.
With the 3,100-resident village’s sole precinct reporting at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, he had 79% of the vote, enough to win outright and avoid a runoff.
Huntington defeated two opponents, Daniel Samaria and Carlos Trejo Pereira, who respectively took 16% and 5% of the vote.
He will take the seat of now-former Commissioner John Holland, who was appointed to the post a year before.
The seat will again be up for grabs in November.
Fewer than 350 of Biscayne Park’s 1,985 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, representing a 17.4% turnout.
But of those who voted, 272 picked Huntington, who told Florida Politics shortly after clinching the win that he was “shocked and honored” by the result.
“I’m proud to serve the residents of Biscayne Park, and I can’t wait to get to work,” he said.
Huntington added that he was grateful all candidates involved ran respectful campaigns.
“It was a cordial race. I thank both of my opponents for being civil the entire time,” he said. “It was great to see a friendly neighborhood race that kept extreme national politics out of it. It was just our neighborhood and a good day for Biscayne Park.”
Huntington, a firefighter, said last week that addressing traffic in the small, 3,100-resident municipality was his No. 1 issue. Too many cars drive through the village daily, he said, and there should be more traffic-calming measures and pedestrian protections.
Another priority was to make sure the village completed its capital improvement plan. He said he’d also work to make officials more accessible to their constituents.
“Biscayne Park residents are informed and want more interpersonal relationships with Commissioners,” he said. “I’ve always felt we were lacking in that.”
Huntington said he ran a mostly self-funded campaign with $400 from his bank account, $200 from a family member and $100 from the Miami Association of Firefighters, which endorsed him.
He planned to run in November, when three Village Commission seats are open, whether or not he won Tuesday.
Samaria, a former Biscayne Park Commissioner, said he’ll do the same regardless of the Special Election outcome. His platform prioritized lower taxes, addressing traffic congestion and improving the village’s public works.
He said that especially in Tuesday’s election, which he estimated would cost taxpayers $15,000, a candidate’s experience in elected office should influence residents’ decisions in the voting booth.
“This is not a regular election where you have two years to do what you need to do,” he said. “We have a seven-month term here. We have the budget coming up. Experience counts.”
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and active community member, Samaria spent most of the 1990s working as an exterminator and in 2001 founded his own pest control company.
He said his campaign was almost exclusively self-funded, with only a pair of contributions totaling about $50 coming from anywhere but his wallet.
In 2020, Samaria made headlines after he became embroiled in a legal battle with the village, which sued him on allegations that he no longer lived there and was in office illegally. Samaria said he fell victim to a loan scam, was unable to pay his mortgage and was eventually evicted from his home, but he never moved out of the municipality.
A judge tossed the lawsuit, and Samaria countersued for $1 million in damages, accusing the former Mayor, Manager and Attorney of collaborating to remove him from office. He said he initially included Biscayne Park in the lawsuit on legal advice, but the complaint that ultimately went to court only included the Mayor, Manager and Attorney as respondents.
“Since I had no intention of making residents pay any which way — that was never the intention — the lawsuit against Biscayne Park was thrown out,” he said. “A lawsuit against the other three kept going and has now been settled. That’s all I can say.”
Pereira, a stalwart GOP operative, brought experience working in the offices of Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia and embattled Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo to his candidacy. He said on X last month that he decided to run for the Biscayne Park Commission after “several neighbors” asked him to do so.
He told Florida Politics last week he was concerned about encroaching crime from neighboring areas, upkeep of a local recreation center “which seems abandoned” and a pressing need to convert septic tanks in the village to the county sewer system. He also complained about a lack of advocacy in Tallahassee, Washington and at Miami-Dade County Hall.
“I believe that our elected officials do not advocate directly, (and) although a lobbyist is paid, this should be reinforced with the presence of the Commissioners and the Mayor in each Legislative Session,” he said by text.
“I think many people do not know that (the village) of Biscayne Park exists, I think that it is time for people to know about this beautiful paradise in South Florida (and for the) federal government, state government and the county (to) allocate more funds to our city.”
Pereira’s political work also included stints as a field director for Latinos for Trump, Americans for Prosperity and the LIBRE Initiative. He is now the Executive Director of Amigos of our Parks, a North Miami-based nonprofit dedicated to conserving Miami parks that promote Central American values.
Holland was appointed in January to replace former Commissioner Veronica Olivera, who resigned to move out of the village.
The seat will again be open in November, when voters will also elect people to the seats of Commissioners Art Gonzalez and MacDonald Kennedy. The November election will be at-large, with voters choosing between a field of candidates and the top three vote-getters winning office.
The two candidates with the most votes will win four-year terms, while the third winner will serve for two years.
