A candidate’s bounced check means another Miami-Dade commissioner gets four more years

Douglas Hanks
·2 min read
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A Miami-Dade County commissioner was automatically reelected to a second four-year term on Monday after his challenger’s check to qualify for the race bounced, according to the Elections Department.

René Garcia, who represents parts of Hialeah and surrounding areas as the District 13 commissioner, was declared “unopposed” in the Aug. 20 election after challenger Ian Anthony Medina did not replace a bounced $360 filing check he delivered hours before the noon qualifying deadline on June 11.

READ MORE: With zero ballots cast, three Miami-Dade commissioners get four more years in office

After the check was returned for insufficient funds, an elections administrator wrote Medina on Thursday to say that state rules would give him until Monday at 3 p.m. for the first-time county candidate to deliver a cashier’s check for the proper amount, according to a copy of the email provided to the Miami Herald through a records request.

Once that deadline passed, the Elections Department’s website changed both candidates’ statuses, marking Garcia as “unopposed” and Medina as “did not qualify.”

Medina and Garcia were not immediately available for comment.

The change makes Garcia the fourth commissioner this year to win reelection for lack of a challenger. The other three had no opponents when the June 11 filing deadline passed: District 1’s Oliver Gilbert, District 5’s Eileen Higgins and District 9’s Kionne McGhee.

Three others face challengers in the Aug. 20 election: District 3’s Keon Hardemon, District 7’s Raquel Regalado and District 11’s Roberto Gonzalez.

Ian Anthony Medina, pictured here on his website, is accused of working as an attorney in Miami without a law license.
Ian Anthony Medina, pictured here on his website, is accused of working as an attorney in Miami without a law license.

Garcia, 49, is a former Republican state senator who was elected to his first term on the commission in 2020.

Medina, 30, was in the news in 2022 during a failed run for the Miami Lakes town council when he was arrested on charges of practicing law without a license. Court records show the case was closed under a diversion program that allows defendants to avoid convictions. Medina said he was required to complete courses on legal ethics and volunteer for community service.

A Federal Election Commission database shows in March he registered a committee to run as a nonpartisan candidate for U.S. president in 2024, but Medina said earlier this month “that was just a joke.”