After Francis Suarez’s LA debut, California Republicans say: OK, but what do you stand for?

The name “Francis Suarez” didn’t really ring a bell with David Hernandez, whose mission is to bring more of California’s Hispanic voters to the Republican Party. But Hernandez is intrigued by the newly announced presidential candidate’s fresh face and interesting backstory.

The day after the Miami mayor, son of a previous mayor, christened his candidacy with a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library outside Los Angeles, Hernandez, head of the Los Angeles Hispanic Republican Club, wanted to know more. He didn’t watch Suarez’s speech because he was busy preparing for a local religious demonstration on Friday.

The club leader is definitely curious about how a Hispanic Republican might fare at a time when polls show Hispanic voters are increasingly open to entreaties from the Republican Party. Suarez being a Cuban American whose family fled communism only adds to his appeal, Hernandez said.

Hernandez, who likes to say “brown is the new red” and co-hosts a conservative radio talk show, wants to see Suarez take stances for parental rights in schools, push for immigration reform, push back on critical race theory and strongly support law enforcement. And Hernandez, whose office is filled with campaign signs for losing Republican candidates, including himself, wants to back someone who can win on the strength of these issues — not just someone who shares his ethnicity.

Hernandez sees Suarez, 45, as an interesting alternative to current GOP front-runners Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is appealing, especially on education policy, and Californians dissatisfied with the state government’s response to COVID found DeSantis’ “Free State of Florida” approach refreshing. Trump’s legal baggage could be troublesome, Hernandez said, because many conservatives fear the Department of Justice is being used for a political prosecution.

But Suarez is a newcomer to America’s hyper-polarized debate, and he appears to have some credibility with voters who fear the rise of socialism in the United States. Hernandez believes the mayor’s current obscurity on the national stage could benefit him politically with a group of voters who are tired of traditional candidates.

“His parents are immigrants from Cuba. I’m sure what’s instilled in him is the value of liberty and freedom,” said the 74-year-old. “There was a reason his parents came here. And as this country is moving more and more toward that direction of what they fled, it’s important to have somebody in the political arena that fully understands the danger that this country is in.”

Read more: Miami Mayor Suarez is in GOP presidential race: ‘Unity is more powerful than division’

While Suarez, who touts the importance of unity and flaunts his enthusiasm for tech, sparks curiosity in California Republican circles, the mayor has work to do with this community to be taken seriously — particularly by Gen Z.

“He has to very much earn his spot into being somebody who we think as a potential candidate for president,” said Elizabeth Santana-Zavala, a 17-year-old activist with several social media channels focused on documenting local political issues, including the thoughts of young conservatives. She’s active with Hernandez’s club.

“There’s a lot of issues that I know, for me, that I don’t know what he stands on,” Santana-Zavala said of Suarez. “So it’s just a lot of discovering who he is and, you know, trying to test what he says to what he’s done in the past.”

Among her interests: Climate change. She said she’d seen some of the mayor’s commentary acknowledging climate change as a problem that requires a government response, though she wants to hear more. Suarez has not emphasized climate change as a key issue in the run-up to his campaign or in his first salvo of publicity after entering the race. He’s made policing, the economy and immigration central themes in the first few days of his campaign.

Members of the Los Angeles Hispanic Republican Club also said they care about parents’ rights, including the nature of sex education and conversations of gender identity in public schools. It is a controversial issue in Florida, particularly as part of DeSantis’ “anti-woke” agenda, but Suarez has not yet spoken on the topic as a candidate.

The openness to a Suarez candidacy in blue California marks a contrast to a crowded political climate in Florida, where the Republican Party is growing and conservative voters have familiar faces to consider.

DeSantis and Trump, both Floridians, dominate the GOP conversation in Suarez’s backyard. The day before Suarez filed paperwork to run for the nomination, he walked around outside Miami’s federal courthouse in the hours before Trump’s arraignment stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents. A Trump supporter spotted him and called him a “swamp monster,” according to the Independent, a British publication.

The mayor’s voting record in past elections could cause him issues. Suarez did not cast a ballot for Trump in either 2016 or 2020, although he’s publicly said he would vote for Trump in this election should the former president become the Republican nominee. In 2016, he voted for Hillary Clinton, and in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race, he voted for DeSantis’ progressive opponent, Andrew Gillum.

Miami politics is officially nonpartisan, meaning Suarez didn’t run under a party banner. This is his first partisan race.

Suarez’s 2016 vote for Hillary Clinton is “a tough thing to overcome,” said Republican consultant Mary Ann Bernal, 56. “How could a Republican do that?”

Hernandez has more of an open mind, saying “it’s never too late to do the right thing.”

“We have Republicans today that voted for Hillary. We have individuals in our group that voted for Barack Obama twice,” he said. “Does that mean that we don’t want to give them the opportunity to set things right?”

Benito Bernal, Mary Ann’s husband, said Suarez’s choice to give his first speech as a candidate at the Reagan library on Thursday was savvy, given the Gipper’s appeal to some politically centrist Hispanics.

“Reagan was the first Republican that my parents voted for, because of many of the values and what he stood for,” said 59-year-old Bernal, who was raised in a Democratic family and worked for years in Democratic union activism. “So I think the fact that he chose this particular location will connect with a lot of Democrats that are probably on the fence, and even independents.”

Hernandez, the Bernals and Santana-Zavala could not attend Suarez’s Thursday night address in person. By the time they learned who he was, registration for the event had closed. On Friday, Hernandez said he would watch a replay online. The night before, he was busy preparing for a Friday night of prayer outside Dodger Stadium in response to a Pride event where the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charitable drag group whose members dress like nuns, were being honored.

Members of the Republican club had heard a little about a controversy over Suarez’s private consulting work for a real estate developer who needed a permit for a project in the city. Following Miami Herald reports about the arrangement, the FBI and local agencies are investigating the matter. Suarez has denied wrongdoing and said he welcomes the scrutiny.

Read more: Miami official rejected plans by a developer paying Suarez. Then the mayor’s aide called

Suarez is the only Hispanic in the GOP primary race, but that alone didn’t resonate much with Santana-Zavala. She said she’s more interested in his platform.

“Being Hispanic, that’s representation,” she said. “But it really doesn’t necessarily matter to me, because I know who I am. And, you know, a lot of people get caught up, I guess, in the fact that they want to see themselves represented in people. But what I want to see represented is, rather than the skin color or where they come from, their values and what they stand for.”