Mayor Suarez, follow your own advice: Don’t ‘linger around’ in GOP presidential primary | Opinion

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said it himself just days ago: If you can’t meet the minimum threshold to be on the first GOP debate stage, “you shouldn’t be trying to take time and volume away from people that do.”

It’s time for Suarez’s short and — long-shot — presidential campaign to face the music. Suarez didn’t make the Wednesday debate in Milwaukee. He should drop out.

“I don’t think candidates should just sort of linger around . . . if they don’t have a credible path,” Suarez said at the Iowa State Fair this month.

Suarez never had a “credible path” to the White House, and he hasn’t raised his profile enough to meet the Republican National Committee’s meager requirement that candidates register at least 1% support in viable polls. Staying in the race is a fruitless exercise that takes time away from Suarez’s mayoral duties.

As of this writing, he was still running. His campaign spokeswoman didn’t answer a request for comment.

On paper, Suarez represents the future of the Republican Party. At 45, he’s young, Hispanic and a mayor in the nation’s third-largest state. But Miami’s bitcoin mayor — the darling of tech bros who have built a lot of hype around Miami’s emerging tech sector — was out of his depth running to lead the world’s most powerful democracy.

It’s not just his fumbling an interview question about China’s Uyghur Muslim minority — “What’s a Uyghur?” he asked. Suarez is the mayor of relatively small city — Miami’s population doesn’t surpass 450,000 residents — and one that he doesn’t actually run. The mayor’s job is part time and largely ceremonial. His limited powers include vetoing legislation and appointing the city manager, though the City Commission can overrule him.

Suarez’s decision to jump into the primary was a head scratcher. That was before Suarez was hit with a deluge of negative news stories.

The FBI is investigating his relationship with a real-estate developer who paid him $170,000 in consulting fees while having business before City Hall. A Democratic activist filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics asking for an investigation into VIP tickets Suarez received for a Formula One event in Miami and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Suarez says he reimbursed hedge fund Citadel CEO Ken Griffin for the Grand Prix tickets, but he hasn’t provided proof, the Herald reported.

Being mayor is just one of Suarez’s many jobs. In 2021, Suarez added at least six new positions to his portfolio of outside work, the Herald reported. Besides earning a $130,000 compensation package as mayor, he worked at DaGrosa Capital, a Coral Gables-based private equity firm, and had a consulting arrangement with a crypto mining venture, among others. He grew his personal net worth five-fold in his first term.

Suarez’s commitment to his public office was under question before he jumped in the GOP primary. Is running for president just a vanity project, or is Miami’s ambitious mayor more concerned in using his bid as a jumping-off point for his next lucrative gig? Either way, he should call it a day.