Jesse Scheckner
Twelve years after losing against her in their first clash for public office, Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon got one back, defeating his predecessor at County Hall, Audrey Edmonson, in a rematch Tuesday night.
With all precincts reporting, Hardemon had 61% of the vote compared to 29% for Edmonson. Placing a distant third was construction executive Marion Brown.
Hardemon secured another four-year term representing District 3, which spans the unincorporated neighborhoods of Brownsville and Biscayne Shores, and a large chunk of Miami — including Liberty City, Little Haiti, Overtown, the Upper East Side, Edgewater, Buena Vista, Allapattah, Wynwood, San Marco Island and Watson Island.
The villages of Miami Shores and El Portal, where Edmonson served as Mayor, also fall within its borders.
Edmonson, 71, served on the Miami-Dade Commission from 2005 to 2020, when she was forced to leave office due to term limits county voters overwhelmingly approved in 2012. Those rules don’t bar former officials from running again after leaving office, however, and after a brief run for Congress in 2022 for which she didn’t qualify, she reset her sights on her prior post.
She said many of her former constituents encouraged her to run, complaining that Hardemon didn’t make himself available to them. Hardemon, 40, disputed that claim and pointed to funding he delivered to the district for affordable housing, anti-poverty efforts and anti-gun violence initiatives like the $90 million Peace and Prosperity Plan as evidence of his hard work.
He won the District 3 seat with 67% of the vote in 2020, a far better outcome than in 2012, when Edmonson trounced him by 24 points. In their rematch, the soft-spoken yet persuasive policymaker was strongly positioned to ensure that didn’t happen again.
Since winning in 2020, Hardemon raised more than $1.3 million through early August. Compared to 2012, he was much better known to county voters, having previously served on — and chaired — the Miami City Commission. He also leads the county’s Airport and Economic Development Committee and Tourism Development Council, among other leadership positions.
Hardemon, a criminal defense lawyer in private life, said he wanted to add more affordable and public housing to Miami-Dade’s inventory in a second term while building on his existing accomplishments.
A therapist by training, Edmonson’s impact on Miami-Dade is indelible. Among other things, she led a countywide effort to stop the theft of copper wiring from Miami-Dade’s street lighting system, spearheaded a push for new guidelines for crane operations and introduced legislation to reestablish the county’s small business loan and bond programs.
She vowed, if she won a trip back to County Hall, to prioritize community development, public safety and affordable housing efforts while shoring up county infrastructure against sea-level rise.
She wasn’t especially forthcoming about her campaign finances. An April press release from her campaign announced she’d raised more than $100,000, but her campaign account showed by late July that she added about $45,000 since January. Florida records did not show her attached to any state-level political committees.
Brown, 59, was the lone Republican in the race. Hardemon and Edmonson are Democrats.
Brown was also a rather new participant in the electoral process. State records showed he only registered to vote in Miami-Dade in May 2023 and had yet to cast a ballot before Tuesday.
Through early August, he raised $2,500. He had no campaign account. During a July 23 forum by the Miami Foundation, he said his “main thing is slowing down gentrification.”
The Miami-Dade Commission is nonpartisan, as are its elections. Edmonson, Hardemon and Brown all appeared on the Aug. 20 Primary ballot in District 3.
