MIAMI — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may be considering a run for president, but he’s not ready to share some of his policy stances yet.
As the Republican-led Florida Legislature passes laws that loosen gun regulations and considers laws that transform public education, Suarez preferred to stay out of the conversation in a recent interview with the Miami Herald.
When it comes to significant parts of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda, the mayor did not offer his view.
“Things are changing rapidly,” said Suarez, a registered Republican currently holding a nonpartisan office. “And I focus on the things that I control. You know, I focus on the things that I can determine.”
The mayor’s reluctance marks a stark contrast to DeSantis, who’s hitching his political star to a legislative session fueled by his vision for the “Free State of Florida” where “woke goes to die.” DeSantis is so focused on his Florida agenda that some supporters are wondering when he’s going to formally launch his presidential campaign and swipe back at former President Donald Trump, who’s leading in most polls and regularly taking shots at the governor.
For now, Suarez is staying out of the fray — and out of many voters’ minds. He’s not included in many polls, and when he is, he’s not registering. A Fox News poll in late March saw Suarez clock in at 0%, far behind Trump, DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and other Republican primary contenders.
When Suarez wants to, he has offered his opinion on other matters that are outside of his purview. During a January speech as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he called for an end to cash bail. Bail laws are largely determined by state legislatures. He also has criticized both Republicans and Democrats for failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and he once said the U.S. government should consider military intervention in Cuba.
The mayor, a 45-year-old attorney and private equity executive, has recently traveled to Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire to meet with voters on what he calls a “listening tour” as he weighs a White House bid. He has not given a timeline for when he will decide if he will seek the Republican presidential nomination.
While Suarez is listening in his travels, DeSantis is laying down his policy initiatives in speeches from Michigan to Ohio to Virginia to New Hampshire.
Gun policy
On April 3, DeSantis signed a law that allows a person to carry a gun without a permit or training in Florida. The new law takes effect July 1. The change has drawn opposition from both sides of the gun policy debate. Advocates say it doesn’t go far enough to deregulate gun ownership. Opponents say the new law makes the public less safe and could allow people to use other loopholes to obtain guns without a background check.
Suarez is staying out of the debate. When he was asked twice if he thought permitless carry could impact public safety in Miami, he demurred.
“It’s hard to say. I think Florida has pretty liberal gun laws. And we are succeeding despite that. So it’s hard to create a correlation,” he said.
The mayor often touts the city’s recent historically low homicide rate, using the statistic to make the case that Miami is a safe city because it increased its investment in the police department, as opposed to “defunding the police.”
“We’ve reduced homicides to the lowest level per capita since 1964,” he told the Herald. “I think that is a tremendous accomplishment. That means that people are safe. [It] had nothing to do with gun policy. It has to do with the way that we are keeping our city safe, the way we are working our economy, the way we work to empower people and make you feel a sense of pride.”
When he was a city commissioner, Suarez attributed a dip in homicides to a technology that uses acoustic sensors to detect gunfire and immediately report locations to police. He supported spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the system, called ShotSpotter. The program remains in place today.
Yet as he flirts with a run for higher office, he’s keeping his gun policy views to himself. He suggested he would offer his stances if he ran for higher office.
“And you know, as I evolve, if I decide to do something at the national level, then certainly I think it’s appropriate for me to comment on things that have national impact,” he said.
Education
Suarez also declined to share his opinion on proposed changes, in many cases put forward by DeSantis, to Florida’s K-12 public education system that are being discussed in Tallahassee. Bills moving through the Legislature could expand the state government’s control over what is taught in public school classrooms, including what books students can access at school.
When asked if government should be more involved in regulating books and teachers’ curriculum, he declined to offer his opinion.
“I focus on things I can control. So I can’t control the school system, right? Because unlike New York or LA, I don’t choose the superintendent, right? It’s an independent,” the mayor said. “And this is important because people don’t know this sometimes.”
The mayor then said he prefers to think about topics that bring more consensus, versus divisive issues.
“In politics, generally we spend 80% of the time focusing on the 20% of things we don’t agree on instead of 80% of time focusing on the 80% of the things we do agree on,” he said.
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