Video shows candidate for Miami-Dade elections chief yelling at, touching U.S. Senate candidate

For now, Alina García has a clear path to the Nov. 5 General Election. Image via Alina García.

Many would agree that in a time of shaky faith in America’s election integrity, it is vital for election officials to be as outwardly apolitical as possible.

Miami Republican state Rep. Alina Garcia, the GOP nominee for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections (SOE), evidently disagrees.

She was captured on camera joining a group confronting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell with chants of “socialista” (socialist). At one point, she puts her hand on Mucarsel-Powell’s shoulder, prompting a nearby police officer to tell her, “No touching.”

According to Garcia, the confrontation was manufactured and the video was misleading. She told Florida Politics the encounter, which occurred Sunday at a rally she and other Republican candidates were holding at an early voting site in the Hammocks neighborhood, happened after Mucarsel-Powell and other Democrats showed up to disrupt it.

Hialeah Rep. Alex Rizo, Chair of the Miami-Dade GOP, concurred with Garcia and said Mucarsel-Powell engaged in “a dangerous and disgraceful display of political thuggery.”

A 23-second clip, posted to X on Monday by Miami Herald reporter Doug Hanks, showed Garcia and others accusing Mucarsel-Powell of being a socialist and Garcia briefly making physical contact with Mucarsel-Powell. It drew several critical comments.

But other clips posted by communications consultant Chris Hartline suggest that Mucarsel-Powell prompted the exchange. One shows her campaign bus arriving at the early voting location. Another shows Mucarsel-Powell walking toward a crowd of Republican demonstrators. While doing so, she bumps into a woman wearing a T-shirt supporting Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, who unseated her in 2020.

Democratic Florida House candidate Marco Reyes, who was next to Mucarsel-Powell when the incident occurred at an early voting event, said Garcia should withdraw from the race.

Lissette Fernandez, the co-founder of Moms for Libros, wrote, “What kind of Supervisor will (Garcia be) if she can easily play into these culture wars and spread this kind of misinformation?”

The misinformation Fernandez referred to is, in part, being promoted in ads backing the man Mucarsel-Powell hopes to unseat, Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott. One such ad points to her support for the proposed Green New Deal, which would reorient some American economic policies toward renewable and clean energy, and Kamala Harris’ plan to impose a 28% tax on long-term capital gains earned by millionaires and billionaires.

The video also caught the eye of Garcia’s opponent, lawyer J.C. Planas, a Republican-turned-Democratic former lawmaker who specializes in elections and ethics law. He called Garcia’s actions “deeply disturbing” and “disqualifying for a Supervisor of Elections candidate who is supposed to be fair and impartial.”

At the very least, he said, Garcia owes Mucarsel-Powell and Miami-Dade voters an apology.

“This behavior is alarming and wildly inappropriate coming from someone who is running to conduct elections for all Miami-Dade County voters,” he said in a prepared statement.

“Over the past week during early voting, I have run into many candidates, including some from the opposing party, and I have greeted them warmly in order to convey to all that I intend to be a Supervisor of Elections for all. While we know that there may be healthy debate at the polls, intimidation, harassment, and physical contact of any kind is never okay.”

Garcia said Mucarsel-Powell took a page out of “the communist playbook” on Sunday and was met with an appropriate riposte.

“They were pushing it. We had a press conference going, and they were successful in stopping it because the cameras went to follow her instead of continuing with the press conference, so we shut it down and went out to continue our day,” she said by phone. “She went there to agitate. They had a camera, a whole bunch of things. So everyone started shouting, ‘Debbie communista,’ because that’s what communists do. They come when you’re having a peaceful event with your people and they try to agitate you and shut you down.”

Rizo said the event was a “well-attended rally” supporting Scott and “focused on positive messages urging Miami-Dade voters to get to the polls. Then Mucarsel-Powell showed up, he said, and “was seen inciting the crowd, pushing agitators toward supporters of Sen. Scott, risking injury and endangering lives.”

“There is no place for these Castro-style intimidation tactics in American politics,” he said by email, adding that Mucarsel-Powell, not Garcia, owes voters an apology. “Miami-Dade wants leaders who protect our community, not tear it down.”

This election is the first time Miami-Dade voters will choose a Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector, both of which have been appointed by Mayor-appointed offices under the county’s 1957 charter. In 2018, Florida voters — including 58% of Miami-Dade voters — approved a constitutional amendment requiring every county in the state to elect those offices, a Sheriff and Property Appraiser by Jan. 7, 2025.

The General Election is on Nov. 5.