Jesse Scheckner
Ralph Rosado is heading to the Miami City Commission.
With all 23 precincts reporting, Rosado had 55% of the vote to defeat fellow Republican Jose Regalado in a nonpartisan Special Election for the right to succeed longtime Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who died in April.
He will keep the job until at least November 2027, though there is an effort ongoing — on which he could hold the swing vote — that could extend his and the city’s five other elected officials’ terms by a year.
He’ll also have a say in how to steer the city’s more than $1.7 billion budget and critical issues on zoning, development and infrastructure.
Rosado and Regalado were the only ones to compete for the job after other candidates failed to qualify for the race.
Florida Politics reached out to both for comment and will update this report.
Neither is unfamiliar with government work.
Rosado, a 52-year-old urban planning and neighborhood revitalization services executive, previously worked as Village Manager for North Bay Village. In 2017, he unsuccessfully ran against Reyes.
Regalado, 40, worked as the Assistant Director for Miami’s Building Department before launching his bid. He also served as an assistant to the City Manager leading COVID response efforts and as Chief Policy Adviser from 2017 to 2019 for Reyes, whose widow reportedly asked him to run.
Regalado comes from a political family. His father, Tomás Regalado, was a two-term Miami Mayor and now serves as Miami-Dade County’s elected Property Appraiser. His sister, Raquel Regalado, is a Miami-Dade Commissioner and former county School Board member.
He vowed, if elected, to apply a “hands-on, results-driven approach” to improving public safety, resident services and Miami’s infrastructure while ensuring the city’s government, developers, and services “work transparently and effectively for the people.”
He also promised to cut red tape for businesses and increase resources for police while calling for more accountability in city spending.
Rosado, who owns and operates Rosado & Associates, boasted a record of involvement in the Miami community and its government. Among other things, he chaired Miami’s $400 million “Miami Forever Bond” Oversight Board and was the founding President of the nonprofit Abuelos Foundation, which supports home renovations and repairs for low-income residents.
He was the Village Manager of North Bay Village from 2019 to 2024.
His campaign website said that, if elected, he would focus on collaborating with residents, Mayor Francis Suarez, and the City Commission to improve the city’s parks and green spaces, keep taxes low, and oversee “responsibly managed development and density in our neighborhoods to maximize quality of life.”
Regalado’s fundraising efforts were robust. Between April 23 and May 29, city records show he reported raising nearly $191,000 through a blend of personal and corporate checks. Notable donors include Pinecrest Mayor Joseph Corradino; former Miami-Dade Transportation Director Alice Bravo; powerhouse lobbyist Ron Book; gasoline magnate Maximo Alvarez; developer Jorge Salazar; and brothers Alex and Miguel Díaz de la Portilla, the former of whom was removed from office in 2023 following since-dropped corruption charges.
The political committee of Regalado’s father, Proven Leadership for Miami, also raised and spent funds for his campaign.
Rosado, meanwhile, raised $79,500 from residents and local businesses, a sizable chunk of them from the real estate industry. His givers included two notable Democrats and former state lawmakers: South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez and former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, the latter of whom twice ran unsuccessfully against Regalado’s sister for County Commission.
Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, whose weaponization of city staff against local business owners has cost the city millions of dollars, also backed Rosado by funding campaign mailers and TV ads attacking Regalado, Political Cortadito reported.
Rosado had the support of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, AFSCME Local 1907 and the Venezuelan American Republican Club of Miami-Dade.
His campaign team included the Bertheir Group, a bilingual political consulting firm led by Jesse Manzano-Plaza whose past clients include Suarez, U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, U.S. Ambassador Kevin Marino Cabrera and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, among others.
Regalado carried endorsements from the South Florida AFL-CIO, South Florida Police Benevolent Association, Miami Herald, Miami’s Community News and the Miami Young Republicans, which called him a “problem solver.”
He tapped the services of Restless Strategies, a Miami-based public relations company run by Esteban “Steven” Ferreiro, whose father worked as Reyes’ Chief of Staff.
Polling last month presaged a close finish, finding Regalado and Rosado in a statistical tie with 27% support for each among District 4 voters and 46% of respondents undecided. But pollsters found Rosado had better favorability at +12, compared to +6 for Regalado.
Two other candidates failed to qualify. One was Antonio Diaz, a repeat contender who has also sought state-level offices. The other was Latin Builders Association President-elect Ralph Cabrera, who was disqualified after the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s Office — led by Tomás Regalado — determined he didn’t qualify and owed $40,000 in fines because the Miami property he listed for homestead exemption was not his primary residence.
District 4 covers an inland portion of Miami and includes the neighborhoods of Flagami, Shenandoah and Coral Gate.
Reyes served the district from 2017 until he died at 80 last month, just months after he won re-election with 86% of the vote. Serving as an elected official was a “lifelong dream fulfilled,” his family said in a statement.
