Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Steve Bovo files to run for Hialeah mayor

Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner who ran unsuccessfully for county mayor in November, filed to run Monday for mayor of Hialeah, where he got his start in politics.

Bovo announced his long-rumored campaign during a press conference outside Hialeah City Hall at 11:45 a.m., and then went inside the building to fill out the paperwork to run.

“I’ve raised my family here. I care deeply about what goes on in my community,” Bovo said at the press conference, calling Hialeah a “blue collar” community that cares about “family values.”

“What we hope to do here today is begin a process of what does Hialeah look like 30 to 40 years from now,” Bovo continued, adding that he wants to make the city “sustainable, not only for all of us, but for future generations.”

Hialeah, the county’s second-largest city by population, will hold its municipal election Nov. 2 for four seats — including the seat being vacated by Mayor Carlos Hernandez, who is term-limited after serving as the city’s most powerful official since 2011. In Hialeah, the mayor is the city’s top administrator.

Bovo became the fourth person to file in the mayoral race. Former Hialeah council members Vivian Casáls-Muñoz and Isis Garcia-Martinez had already submitted paperwork, along with former mayoral candidate Juan Santana.

Bovo’s stepson, Oscar De la Rosa, was elected to the Hialeah City Council in 2019. De la Rosa told the Miami Herald Monday that he would resign should his stepfather become mayor to avoid any appearance of a conflict.

The mayor doesn’t vote on the city council, but the council frequently votes on measures proposed by the mayor.

“I really don’t want there to be any perception at all of a conflict because I sit on that council,” De La Rosa said.

Bovo said the final step in his decision to run for mayor was for De la Rosa to approve.

“He knows my passion,” Bovo said. “He just made a decision to say, ‘If you go and win, I’m out.’ ”

De la Rosa said he’s considering a run for state office next year if Bovo becomes mayor. He declined to specify what position he might seek.

Bovo’s decision to run for mayor is no surprise. In January, a consultant for Bovo hinted at the possibility, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested during a Feb. 8 press conference that he would support Bovo if he seeks the mayor’s seat.

Hialeah is a Republican stronghold, though the mayor’s seat is officially nonpartisan, as was Bovo’s seat on the county commission.

Hernandez, the current Hialeah mayor, has clashed with DeSantis over the past year. In July, he was snubbed from attending a COVID-19 roundtable DeSantis held with a group of Miami-Dade municipal mayors. And last week, he showed up uninvited to a DeSantis press conference at a Navarro Discount Pharmacy in Hialeah, criticizing the governor’s vaccine rollout.

Hernandez broke from his fellow conservative politicians in Northwest Miami-Dade last year to support Alex Penelas, a registered Democrat, for county mayor instead of Bovo, a registered Republican. But Bovo said Monday that there’s no ill will between him and Hernandez.

“I’ve got a good relationship with him,” Bovo said. “Our agendas don’t collide.”

Bovo was appointed to the Hialeah City Council in 1998 before winning reelection twice and serving as council president. In 2008, he won the first of two terms in the Florida House, then a special election for the County Commission’s District 13 seat in 2011.

In last November’s race for county mayor, Bovo received 46% of the vote and fell short against Daniella Levine Cava. Bovo ran on a platform that was supportive of former President Donald Trump as he criticized the “liberal agenda” of his opponent.

On Monday, Bovo said his views of Trump haven’t changed in light of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, suggesting it was violence in the same vein as protests for racial justice last summer.

“I condemned what happened on Jan. 6 and I think that’s something that no sane person would be able to tolerate,” Bovo said. “I condemned what was going on during the summer with [Black Lives Matter] and antifa. If you’re gonna be against violence, you’re gonna be against violence.”

Bovo said Trump “tapped into a nerve” with people who are “frustrated with government’s inability to put them first.” About two-thirds of voters selected Trump in November in Hialeah, the sixth-largest city in Florida by population and the city with the highest percentage of Cuban Americans in the country.

“I think Donald Trump tapped into a nerve that’s undeniable,” Bovo said. “The message of the [former] president, which was to move an agenda that puts the working class and working people first, I think that’s still strong today.”