Francis Xavier Suarez ( ; born October 6, 1977) is an American lawyer and politician who is the 43rd and current mayor of Miami since November 2017. The son of former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez, he previously served on the Miami City Commission from 2009 to 2017.
Suarez is a graduate of Florida International University (FIU), where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance. After that he earned a J.D. from the University of Florida in 2004. He was first elected to represent the 4th district in the Miami City Commission in 2009 and was reelected in 2011 and 2015. He served until 2017 when he was elected mayor of Miami. He was re-elected in 2021. During his mayoralty, Suarez has been noted for his advocacy for cryptocurrency.
Suarez was a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, but withdrew from the race after he failed to qualify for the first primary debate.
Early life and education
The oldest of four siblings, Suarez is the son of Rita and Xavier Suarez, two-time Miami mayor. His aunt, Lala, is the mother of U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney from West Virginia.
Suarez attended Immaculata-LaSalle High School. He graduated in 1996 and went on to graduate in the top 10% of his class from Florida International University (FIU) with a bachelor's degree in finance. Following college, Suarez chose to attend the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, receiving his J.D. degree cum laude in 2004.
Legal career
After law school, Suarez became an attorney with the law firm Greenspoon Marder, specializing in corporate and real estate transactions.
In 2021, Suarez joined Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan's newly-established Miami office. On July 1, 2023, due to his ongoing presidential candidacy, Suarez went on unpaid leave from the firm.
Early political activity
In 1998, Suarez's father, Xavier Suarez, was removed from Miami's mayoral office by a Florida circuit court. The court found that Joe Carollo's lawsuit alleging voter fraud in the first round of the mayoral election had merit. During the lawsuit, the younger Suarez was a 20-year-old sophomore at FIU. Suarez was confronted with witness signatures for invalid absentee ballots by Carollo's lawyers. The signatory "F. Suarez" did not reside at any of the addresses given. Suarez denied any involvement with witnessing absentee ballots. Observers found that the sample of signatures given by Suarez did bear some resemblance to the signatures on the witness ballots.
Before serving in city government, Suarez first served on his local homeowner association. Suarez cited a home burglary that he had suffered as his motivation for getting involved.
Miami Commission (2009–2017) Suarez was first elected to the Miami City Commission's District 4 seat in 2009. in a special election to replace Tomás Regalado, who had resigned to serve as mayor. The initial round of the election was held was on November 3, 2009. Suarez advanced to a runoff election against Manolo Reyes after receiving 44.74% of the vote in the initial round, with Reyes receiving 40.50%, Denis Rod receiving 5.15% and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts receiving 9.61%. His district represented portions of the city's westernmost reaches. The runoff election was on November 17, 2009. Suarez won with 51.41% of the vote. He was subsequently reelected unopposed in both 2011 and 2015.
In January 2013, the Miami Herald wrote that in his first three years on the City Commission, "Suarez has had mixed results passing policy." Suarez introduced a controversial motion that was passed by the City Commission which resulted in a decrease to city employees salaries. He also was an advocate for changes that were made to the zoning code of the city aimed at easing the ability to construct affordable housing. However, Suarez was unsuccessful in a push to move the city from using a weak mayor form of government to adopting a strong mayor form of government.
Suarez was initially a close ally of Mayor Regaldo. In late 2011, Regaldo asked Suarez to hold the chairmanship of the City Commission. After Regaldo was at odds with Police Chief Miguel Exposito, Suarez introduced a controversial motion to fire Exposito, which was passed by the City Commission. However, in mid-2012, Suarez became critical of Regaldo's leadership, attacking high turnover among Regaldo's staff and questioning the finance department's ability to balance the city's budget on time. Suarez even came to criticize Regaldo's feud with former police chief Exposito. Suarez ultimately announced a campaign to unseat Regaldo in the 2013 mayoral election.
Suarez was an opponent of red light cameras in the city, which had become a controversial issue in Miami.