Jesse Scheckner
Miami Republican state Rep. Alina Garcia is vacating her House District 115 seat after just one term to run for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections. Competing to replace her are GOP firefighter Omar Blanco, who extinguished two Primary opponents in August, and Democratic education nonprofit director Norma Perez Schwartz, whose passion for civic engagement grew out of the pandemic.
Blanco, 52, carries a larger war chest, more business-related endorsements and the benefit of a long tenure in a hero’s profession. He is a past firefighters’ union President and was recognized in 2021 as the Florida Professional Firefighter of the Year.
It’s also not his first rodeo; Blanco ran for Congress in 2020, losing to fellow firefighter Carlos Giménez, who went on to supplant the district’s then-Democratic Representative.
Perez Schwartz, 44, isn’t a political neophyte either. After losing her early childhood education contract job during COVID, she got involved in politically progressive endeavors. She phone banked and canvassed for Ruth’s List Florida, which endorsed her in June, and went door-to-door in support of Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s history-making 2020 campaign. She also served on civic boards, including as a voting, PTA-appointed member of the Secure Our Future Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Miami-Dade School Board.
If elected, she vows to address housing and property insurance unaffordability, defend women’s reproductive rights, upgrade local infrastructure and protect the environment. That includes doing more to shore up the county’s improving but still degraded stormwater and sewer systems with state and federal funding.
“At the top of mind for everyone is going to be the affordability issues,” she told Michael Miller of Miami’s Community Newspapers in June. “(I want to look at) possible things we can work on together to ensure that it doesn’t get (harder) to be able to stabilize it and … get families to a better place from where they are now.”
Between when she filed to run in April and early October, Perez Schwartz raised about $31,300. She had a little less than $5,000 left a month before Election Day.
Blanco, meanwhile, stacked $383,000 between his campaign account and political committee, Let’s Get Back to Basics. Though he spent most of it before the Aug. 20 Primary which he won by 30 percentage points, he still had $61,500 left heading into the cycle’s home stretch.
That’s not including $18,400 worth of in-kind aid from the Republican Party of Florida for polling expenses.
Blanco, whose website boasts endorsements from Associated Industries of Florida, five first responder organizations and the Christian Family Coalition, also promises to address soaring property insurance rates. He also wants to keep taxes low, protect seniors and enhance public safety.
The husband of a Miami-Dade Public Schools teacher, Blanco said he would work to further protect parental rights in education, a phrase used as the official title for a Florida law restricting LGBTQ-inclusive classroom instruction that some critics have called “Don’t Say Gay.”
A since-removed tryptic of pictures on his website showed Blanco with ex-President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott. The photos are still on his Instagram page.
“As a lifelong Republican, (I am) committed to upholding our conservative values and fighting for the principles that make Florida great,” he said in a statement. “Serving on the front lines has instilled in me the values of service, sacrifice, and community. With this passion and commitment, I’m ready to serve as your voice in Tallahassee, fighting tirelessly for the issues that matter most to you and your family.”
HD 115 covers a portion of south Miami-Dade, including Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest and the unincorporated neighborhoods of The Falls, Kendall and Westchester.
The district has shifted redder in recent elections. Voters there sided with Andrew Gillum over DeSantis by 4.4 percentage points in 2018, but then picked Trump over Joe Biden by 2 points two years later, according to MCI Maps.
After redistricting in 2022, DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio won the district by 17.4 points and 15.6 points, respectively. By last month, 38% of HD 113 voters were registered as Republicans, compared to 29% who were Democrats and 33% who belonged to a third party or no party.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
