Jesse Scheckner
Lawyer Rob Gonzalez has solidified his place on the Miami-Dade Commission for four more years, defeating two underfunded challengers for the seat to which he was appointed two years ago.
With all precincts reporting Tuesday, Gonzalez had 57% of the vote compared to 26% for high school teacher Bryan Paz-Hernandez and 17% for elementary school teacher Claudia Rainville.
Florida Politics contacted Gonzalez and will update this report upon receipt of one.
Gonzalez enjoyed several advantages heading into Election Day, including his incumbency representing District 11, a war chest more than 16 times the size of his closest competitor and ample support from fellow Republican politicians.
Gonzalez, a 37-year-old lawyer, ran unsuccessfully for state office in 2022, placing second in a five-way Republican Primary for House District 119. Two months later, Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped him to replace then-Commissioner Joe Martinez, who faces felony charges of improper compensation.
As a member of the 13-member County Commission, Gonzalez sponsored or co-sponsored more than 100 items, including an ordinance requiring more transparency from homeowner associations and a resolution aimed at expanding Miami-Dade’s youth mentorship programs.
He vowed, if elected to a full four-year term, to support law enforcement, push back on defund-the-police efforts, support school choice, oppose tax or fee increases, beautify parks, improve public transportation and guard small businesses from “excessive government regulation.”
He also promised to make District 11 — a 215,000-resident area spanning the unincorporated west Miami-Dade neighborhoods of Country Walk, Hammocks, Kendale Lakes, Kendall, Bent Tree and Lake of the Meadows — more self-sufficient in terms of employment and commercial options.
Gonzalez amassed nearly $1 million to defend his seat through early August, with big donations coming from real estate interests like Centennial Management Corp., Atlantic Pacific Communities and Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
He collected endorsements from U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, 10 state-level officials, Miami-Dade Commissioners Kevin Marino Cabrera and Anthony Rodriguez, Miami-Dade School Board members Mary Blanco, Monica Colluci and Dan Esposito, and a handful of union and advocacy groups.
But he also attracted criticism for leasing a new district office less than six months into his appointed tenure projected to cost taxpayers $1 million over nine years — while still dragging the old office’s lease.
He drew further censure in late May for using Miami-Dade’s official seal in an Instagram post of an upside-down American flag, historically a symbol of extreme distress or danger, to decry Donald Trump’s conviction on nearly three dozen felony counts.
Paz-Hernandez, a 29-year-old high school history teacher, said Gonzalez’s list of achievements was paltry and evidence that he was more interested in stature than bringing relief to residents who need better transportation options and help making ends meet.
His policy proposals included extending Metrorail into Kendall, an estimated $2.1 billion undertaking, while cutting taxes, battling government corruption and blocking overdevelopment of District 11 that leads to traffic congestion.
He also promised to work on increasing Miami-Dade’s affordable housing inventory, cut insurance costs and reduce toll fees.
Gonzalez supported restarting a currently stalled $1 billion project called the Kendall Parkway to expand a county toll road into Southwest Miami-Dade.
Paz-Hernandez’s opposition to the project, which would require development of previously protected wetlands, earned him an endorsement from the Sierra Club. He also notched an endorsement from the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations after participating in a candidates’ forum Gonzalez skipped.
A former President of Kendall Democrats, Paz-Hernandez recently reregistered as an independent. Before becoming a teacher, he worked as a social worker and field organizer for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala’s successful 2018 campaign.
This race marked his first run at public office. Between when he filed in January and early August, he raised close to $19,000 through his campaign account. Two political committees supporting his campaign — Miami-Dade First and District 11 First PAC — collected about $42,000 combined. Paz-Hernandez said most of the spending by Miami-Dade First, which only aligned with his campaign for a month, did not go toward supporting him.
Following Tuesday’s election results, Paz-Hernandez told Florida Politics he was proud of the hard work his campaign’s volunteers and workers did through Election Day and promised to continue his activism.
“Thank you to everyone who believed in and voted for me,” he said in a statement. “The thousands of votes I received clearly show that many folks believe Rob Gonzalez has done a poor job as Commissioner. I hope he understands he has a responsibility to be a public servant. I hope his office follows up on the calls and emails from his constituents. I’ll continue to fight to stop overdevelopment, extend the Metrorail and establish affordable housing.”
That’s far more than Rainville, a private school elementary teacher, managed to gather since she made the District 11 race a three-person contest on June 6, five days before the qualifying deadline. The 43-year-old Republican since added $5,300 to her campaign coffers, all of it from her bank account.
An engineer educated in Nicaragua who became a U.S. citizen in 2010, Rainville said she was running to promote economic growth in District 11, which she’s called home for the past seven years.
She promised, if elected, to help small businesses, improve the county’s educational offerings, increase local cultural activities, improve transit, provide more mental health services to the community, and beautify public parks and recreation areas.
The wife of a cop and former U.S. Marine, Rainville also lists improving public safety and supporting first responders among her campaign priorities, along with a proposed tax credit program to help retired seniors and veterans.
To boot, she promises to donate 10% of her monthly salary to help needy residents.
The Miami-Dade Commission is a technically nonpartisan body, as are its elections, so Gonzalez, Paz-Hernandez and Rainville all appeared on the Aug. 20 Primary ballot.
