Jesse Scheckner
Former Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez was once the presumptive front-runner in the race for Sheriff. He’s no longer in the race, but his preferred choice as the county’s first elected top cop in decades is fellow Democrat James Reyes.
Surrounded by members of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, which endorsed Reyes in July, Ramirez said he was backing Reyes in his “personal capacity.”
Ramirez currently serves as a senior adviser to the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD).
“This race is important for our community. I proudly led the Department for many years, and MDPD is my home and family. So, I know as the community embraces the transition to a Sheriff’s Office (that) who leads as Sheriff is critical,” Ramirez said outside of the Kendale Lakes Branch Library.
“Chief Reyes grew up in Miami-Dade and has the experience to get the job done. I am proud to be voting for him, and equally proud to stand alongside him.”
Reyes, a longtime prison warden who spent the bulk of his career with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, has served as Miami-Dade’s Chief of Public Safety since last year. In the role, he oversees the county’s Police, Fire and Corrections Departments.
He jumped into the Sheriff’s race in January. Ramirez withdrew from the race four months earlier after an attempted suicide.
A career-long MDPD member, Ramirez joined the department in 1995. In January 2020 then-county Mayor Carlos Giménez, a Republican, appointed Ramirez MDPD Director.
He stayed in the job after Democratic Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s election later that year, and in the 2024 election cycle the two shared many of the same campaign staffers. Even before he entered the Sheriff’s race, Levine Cava all but endorsed him, telling reporters, “Freddy Ramirez is an outstanding public servant (and) I have great confidence in his ability to lead.”
She has since endorsed Reyes, whom she recruited from Broward in 2022. So have a wave of local elected officials, including Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony and five Miami-Dade Commissioners.
Groups backing him include SEIU Local 1991, United Teachers of Dade, the National Association of Police Organizations, the South Florida AFL-CIO, AFSCME Florida, GSAF Local 100 and LiUNA Local 1652.
Reyes faces Assistant Miami Police Director Rosie Cordero-Stutz, who defeated 10 other Republican candidates for her party’s nomination. Reyes beat three Democrats to punch his path to the General Election.
Cordero-Stutz, a nearly 30-year MDPD veteran, carries endorsements from Giménez, Donald Trump, Rick Scott, U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, 27 current Florida Sheriffs, the Hispanic Police Officers Association and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman, a Democrat, among others.
Both have platforms prioritizing public safety, combatting public corruption and improving the county’s technological capabilities in fighting crime.
Miami-Dade hasn’t had an elected Sheriff since 1966, when county voters eliminated the position after a grand jury report revealed rampant corruption within the agency. Instead, the Mayor today serves as the de facto Sheriff and has since had an appointed Police Director who reports to them.
That arrangement will soon change, due to a 2018 referendum in which 58% of Miami-Dade voters joined a statewide supermajority in approving a constitutional amendment requiring that the county join Florida’s 66 other counties in having an elected Sheriff by early 2025.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
