Jesse Scheckner
Next week, Miami-Dade will have its first voter-chosen Supervisor of Elections (SOE) in 66 years. There’s ample difference between the two candidates competing for the post.
In one corner is Republican state Rep. Alina Garcia, a longtime GOP operative now serving in her first elected term representing House District 115. She’s worked for decades on the campaigns and teams of some of Florida’s most well-known politicians and carries a far larger war chest than her opponent.
She faces Democrat J.C. Planas, an elections and ethics lawyer who served four straight terms in the Florida House from 2002 to 2010 as a Republican. A decade after leaving office, he switched parties following the first impeachment of Donald Trump, citing the ex-President’s attacks on voting rights and lies that the 2020 election was stolen.
As it happens, Garcia notched an endorsement from Trump, who said on his Truth Social website in May that she has “done an incredible job” since being elected to the Legislature. Asked by the Miami Herald whether she believes Trump lost the 2020 election, Garcia equivocated. She called the elections in Florida and Miami-Dade “fair, transparent” and quickly reported, but said she could not speak to elections conducted elsewhere.
She told the outlet in February that while elections are largely fair and accurate, “people don’t always feel they’re fair … and perception is very important.”
Garcia, 67, was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Florida in 1961. She’s long been in politics, but also works in real estate. Her political clients have included U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and former state Sen. Frank Artiles, who was found guilty last month of election interference through a so-called “ghost candidate” scheme.
She won her HD 115 seat two years ago with 58.5% of the vote, running on an anti-abortion, anti-communism platform that also prioritized parental rights in education, insurance reform and doubling Florida’s homestead exemption. She successfully sponsored four bills since taking office.
If elected, she vows to make the Department of Elections more modern, transparent and secure, and develop educational resources to “address the unique needs and challenges of various demographics, seniors, and individuals with disabilities.”
Questions about Garcia’s suitability for the job arose this month after a video circulated online showing her crowding Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is challenging Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott, while chanting “socialista” (socialist). At one point in the video, Garcia puts her arm around the Mucarsel-Powell’s shoulder, prompting a nearby police officer to tell her, “No touching.” Garcia told Florida Politics the Democrat forced the encounter, and there is another video showing Mucarsel-Powell approaching the group and at one point coming into physical contact with a GOP demonstrator.
Planas, 54, promises to upgrade the county elections website, enhance voter registration efforts and use various technologies, including a system of QR codes, to track mail-in ballots and streamline electoral processes.
Roughly a dozen current and former local leaders from both sides of the political aisle have endorsed Planas, along with Senate Democratic Leader-designate Jason Pizzo, Homestead Democratic state Rep. Kevin Chambliss and advocacy organizations like SAVE Action PAC, United Teachers of Dade, AFSCME and a pair of SEIU chapters.
In July, he became the first person in the history of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust to be fined for filing a frivolous complaint. Planas said he’s appealing the decision and warned such fines could create a chilling effect on ethics challenges.
Notably, he is the namesake for case law from 2006, Planas v. Planas, which generally established that anyone who runs for office under a nickname with the goal of tricking voters should be disqualified from running. The case, which arose when Planas sued his cousin for filing to run against him that year under the previously unused nickname “J.P. Planas,” informed the ruling of a similar case in early August.
By October, Garcia raised more than five times what Planas did, stacking over $574,000 between her campaign account and political committee, Florida Always First, since she won the House race in 2022. She had about $203,000 left less than a month before Election Day.
Planas, meanwhile, raised just over $102,000 through his campaign account and spent more than $85,000 of that sum by Oct. 4. An unaffiliated political committee supporting his campaign called Friends of JC Planas added $500,000 in late September 2023 from a single donor, mortgage loan originator Eduardo Fernandez, but had spent just $18,000 between then and mid-October, all of it on digital ads and texts.
Planas won a three-way Democratic Primary with 46% of the vote to advance to the General Election. Garcia originally faced two GOP Primary foes — lawyer Megan Pearl and Ruth Swanson, a 2020 election denier. Swanson withdrew in late March after raising just $4,400 in nine months. Pearl dropped out shortly after Trump endorsed Garcia.
Miami-Dade voters in 1957 abolished several constitutional offices — including SOE, Tax Collector and Property Appraiser — through the adoption of the county’s Home Rule Charter. The charter designated their powers to Miami-Dade’s top executive official, today the county Mayor, who has appointed people to those positions.
But in 2018, a supermajority of Florida voters, including 58% of Miami-Dade voters, approved a constitutional amendment requiring every county in the state to elect those officers and a Sheriff by Jan. 7, 2025.
