Jesse Scheckner
Just over four months before voters were to choose a new Mayor and two other officials at City Hall, the Miami Commission has narrowly approved postponing its election to November 2026, sparking outcry and a likely challenge from the state.
Commissioners voted 3-2 for the change, with Christine King and Ralph Rosado joining the measure’s sponsor, Damian Pardo, in supporting the election delay.
Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela, frequent foes on the five-member panel, voted “no.”
The change, if it stands, will confer all Commissioners and Mayor Francis Suarez an extra year in office while denying 17 others running for office a timely conclusion to their efforts.
Proponents of the move have argued it will save the city money and boost voter turnout, since Miami elections would now coincide with federal races that draw more attention. Critics, including several declared candidates, say the decision disenfranchises voters and illegally bypasses the city and county charters, which require voter approval for election date changes.
Former City Manager Emilio T. Gonzalez, one of nine candidates running to succeed Suarez, who is term limited, called Thursday’s decision “an illegal act (that) will not stand.”
“Miami voters have been loud and clear that they do not support this unilateral move on the part of Francis Suarez and the Miami Commissioners to cut voters out of the decision-making process,” he said in a statement.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is also running for Mayor, said the decision to circumvent voters “highlights the dysfunction in our government.”
“While I support moving city elections to even years to boost turnout, bypassing voters was wrong,” she said. “Elections should proceed this November as planned. A delayed runoff in December 2026 will only cost more and suppress turnout.”
Another mayoral candidate, Michael Hepburn, previously threatened to sue the city if it rescheduled its election.
Attorney General James Uthmeier has also warned his office would “consider taking all available actions” to stop the change from taking effect.
“The State will not tolerate such an unconstitutional deviation,” Uthmeier wrote, adding that his office would “consider taking all available actions” to stop the change from taking effect,” he said in a letter to Suarez and City Commissioners.
“You should immediately cease the process of enacting the ordinance to move the date of municipal elections and change the terms of office for elected officials in the City of Miami. The citizens of Miami deserve — and are entitled to — the right to make this decision, directly.”
Miami City Attorney George Wysong, so far, has maintained Miami is within its rights to move its election date, citing Florida Statutes that generally allow local governments to do so by ordinance and without voter approval.
Uthmeier has said that due to the Miami-Dade Home Rule Charter, which protects the county and its localities from certain state preemption, the county’s rules requiring a referendum for election date changes supersedes Florida’s rules.
It’s an argument that has bled over into nearby Coral Gables, where Commissioner Melissa Castro filed legislation Thursday to reverse a May 20 city decision to move up its election by five months to align with federal contests.
Castro also contacted Uthmeier’s Office for a formal legal opinion. She told Florida Politics, “Residents, not politicians, should decide when their elections are held and how long their elected officials serve.”
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who backed the change, noted that his city began talks of rescheduling its elections more than two years ago and that at no point during the process did Uthmeier or his predecessor, Ashley Moody, raise any legal concerns.
He cited the same state statutes Wysong did to support his assertion that there is “widespread precedent across Miami-Dade County and the State of Florida” for doing so.
“Quite frankly,” he said, “the current controversy is a manufactured non-issue — driven not by legal merit but by politicians and aspiring politicians looking to settle personal or political scores at the expense of our voters and our democracy.”
