Miami Mayor Francis Suarez files paperwork to enter 2024 GOP presidential race

Francis Suarez filed paperwork Wednesday to enter the 2024 presidential race.

If he enters the race, the Miami mayor would be challenging former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence for the GOP nomination.

The 45-year-old mayor, who would be the only Hispanic candidate in the race, is expected to make a “big speech” Thursday at the Reagan Library in California. He told NBC6's sister station Telemundo 51 that he's not officially announcing he's running, but he will announce the creation of an exploratory committee that will evaluate the possibility of him running.

The mayor told NBC6 anchor Jackie Nespral in a recent interview that he was "strongly considering" entering the race.

Before Trump arrived at the courthouse Tuesday, Suarez toured the media encampment wearing a T-shirt with a police logo, as his city's police force had jurisdiction over the downtown area.

“If I do decide to run," he told CNN, “it’s starting a new chapter, a new conversation of a new kind of leader who maybe looks a little different, speaks a little different, had a little bit of a different experience, but can inspire people.”

NBC6 political analyst Mike Hernandez says Suarez would be entering the race late in the game, but believes the mayor may have another goal other than president.

“Presidential candidates just don't decide in June before the January Caucus in Iowa,” Hernandez said. "I think Mayor Suarez is making this decision because he feels it’s a good opportunity for him to become a cabinet secretary should the Republican nominee win the White House in 2024."

Florida Congressman and former Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez blasted Suarez on Fox News Wednesday afternoon.

"I will never support Francis Suarez, I think he is a complete fraud,” Gimenez said. “He voted for Hilary Clinton, Andrew Gillum and Biden, and in what universe will a person who have voted that way in the past is going to get the Republican nomination?"

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison put out a statement saying Suarez used his position as mayor to benefit himself.

“Francis Suarez is yet another contender in the race for the MAGA base who has supported key pieces of Donald Trump’s agenda. As mayor of Miami, Suarez has repeatedly used his position to benefit himself, prioritizing pay raises for himself, accepting lavish gifts, and taking shady payments – all while ignoring the biggest challenges facing the people he was elected to serve," Harrison said. "As the MAGA field keeps growing, we’ll keep reminding the American people that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these extreme, self-serving candidates.”

Suarez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is the son of Miami's first Cuban-born mayor. He has gained national attention in recent years for his efforts to lure companies to Miami, with an eye toward turning the city into a crypto hub and the next Silicon Valley.

Suarez, who is vying to become the first sitting mayor elected president, joins a GOP primary fight that also includes Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Despite having a candidate field in the double digits, the race is largely seen as a two-person contest between Trump and DeSantis.

But the other competitors are hoping for an opening, which Trump has provided with his myriad legal vulnerabilities — none more serious than his federal indictment on charges of mishandling sensitive documents and refusing to give them back. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Miami federal court to 37 felony counts.

Suarez has said he didn’t support Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 presidential elections, instead writing in the names of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and then-Vice President Pence. In 2018, Suarez publicly condemned Trump after reports came out that he had questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa.

But times have changed, with Trump advisers now praising Suarez’s work and helping him promote what he calls “the Miami success story.” Trump’s former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has even floated Suarez’s name as a possible vice presidential pick.

Suarez, who is married with two young children, is a corporate and real estate attorney who previously served as a city of Miami commissioner. He has also positioned himself as someone who can help the party further connect with Hispanics. In recent months, he has made visits to early GOP voting states as he weighed a possible 2024 campaign.

He is more moderate than DeSantis and Trump, but has threaded the needle carefully on cultural issues that have become popular among GOP politicians.

Suarez has been critical of DeSantis, dismissing some of the state laws he has signed on immigration as “headline grabbers” lacking in substance. He has said immigration is an issue that “screams for a national solution” at a time when many Republicans back hard-line policies.

The two-term mayor previously expressed support for a Florida law championed by DeSantis and dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, but he has not specified whether he supported the expansion of the policy to all grades. Like other Republicans, Suarez has criticized DeSantis’ feud with Disney over the same law, saying it looks like a “personal vendetta.”

Further ingratiating himself with the Trump team, Suarez has echoed Trump’s attacks on DeSantis’ demeanor, saying the governor doesn’t make eye contact and struggles with personal relationships with other politicians.

"Mayor Suarez will probably need to present himself as a new generation of Republican leadership that has had some kind of success in a major American city,” Hernandez said. "It’s 99% unlikely that he will win the nomination."

In 2020, the mayor made a play to attract tech companies to Florida after the state relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions. He met with Big Tech players and investors such as PayPal founder Peter Thiel and tech magnate Marcelo Claure, began appearing on national television and was profiled by magazines.

Suarez, who has said he takes his salary in Bitcoin, has also hosted Bitcoin conferences and started heavily promoting a cryptocurrency project named Miami Coin, created by a group called City Coins.

But the hype dissipated as virus restrictions eased elsewhere, eliminating Miami’s advantage on the COVID-19 front. Suarez’s vision also hit roadblocks with the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which was set to move its U.S. headquarters to Miami’s financial district before its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last December.

The only cryptocurrency exchange that traded Miami Coin suspended its trading, citing liquidity problems, not living up to its promise to generate enough money to eliminate city taxes.

Miami also ranks among the worst big U.S. cities for income inequality and has one of the least affordable housing markets.