A politician in Trump-loving Hialeah has left the Republican Party. Here’s why

Paul Hernandez, a Hialeah city councilman for the past decade, said Tuesday that he changed his voter registration from Republican to Democrat just hours after he watched a mob of Donald Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol.

City and county leaders in Miami-Dade serve in nonpartisan roles. But a defection from the Republican Party is notable in conservative Hialeah, where Hernandez is now the only registered Democrat representing the city at any level of government.

“Two weeks ago, as our government recovered from an attempted coup on the building that represents our first branch of government, on the evening of one of the darkest days in our Nation’s history, I made the decision to register as a Democrat,” Hernandez tweeted Tuesday. “Hello, @FlaDems. I’m here to help.”

The replies were mostly supportive, including from local Democrats like Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Hernandez had supported Levine Cava’s Republican opponent, former county commissioner and Hialeah local Steve Bovo, in the November mayoral race.

Hialeah became a Trump stronghold over the four years of his presidency. In 2016, Trump barely defeated Hillary Clinton in the city, but in 2020, about two-thirds of voters in Hialeah — the sixth-largest city in Florida by population and the city with the highest percentage of Cuban Americans in the country — voted for Trump.

But Hernandez, 33, said he has long held political views that put him at odds with some Republicans, including an opposition to fracking, support for LGBTQ rights and the Affordable Care Act. Hernandez was born with a heart defect and has had five related surgeries, which he said has influenced his views on healthcare.

Hernandez said he cast a write-in vote for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president in 2016 and voted for Joe Biden in November. He publicly announced his party switch the day before Biden’s inauguration.

“I steadily felt more and more on the fringe of what the Republican Party had been representing,” Hernandez told the Miami Herald.

On Jan. 6, Hernandez said he watched the Capitol riot unfold on TV with his wife and 6-month-old son and decided it was time to make the switch. He changed his party affiliation online that night around 10:30 after local elections attorney Juan-Carlos Planas — a former Republican state representative who also joined the Democratic Party in November — sent him a link with instructions.

“Looking at my son and wife, I just thought, ‘I’d be ashamed to tell my son that I was somehow related in any way, shape or form to this,’ ” Hernandez said. “That’s not the idea of America that I want my son to have.”

Hernandez said he was a Republican in part because he supports low taxes and responsible spending, but he said he believes Republican officials in Florida haven’t lived up to those ideals in recent years. Hernandez’s father and brother are police officers, shaping his support for law enforcement.

“But I watched a mob of Republicans [beat] a police officer on TV on the steps of the Capitol building,” Hernandez said. “There’s really nothing left for me to rationalize.”

Asked if he sees a connection between his political views on Cuba — a galvanizing issue for many Cuban-American Republicans — and his party affiliation, Hernandez said he doesn’t believe the two are at odds.

“My desire to see a free Cuba doesn’t come from my political affiliation,” he said. “It comes from being a little boy and watching my grandmother cry — one, because she was so grateful to be in [the United States], and two, because she lost everything in the country she was born in.”

Other local Republicans toe the line

Hernandez is the only local elected official in Miami-Dade who is known to have made a public break from the Republican Party in the weeks since a mob incited by Trump sought to stop Congress from certifying the election results.

Other registered Republicans in nonpartisan municipal seats have condemned the violence at the Capitol, but most have steered clear of direct condemnations of Trump or other Republicans who voted to reject the election results in certain states.

Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez (no relation to the councilman) told the Herald on Tuesday that Trump “has got to take some responsibility” for the Capitol riot, but added that there has been “a lot of misinformation” coming from “both sides” of the political aisle.

“On both extremes, the parties have a lot to do,” he said.

In neighboring Miami Lakes, another Republican stronghold in northwest Miami-Dade, Mayor Manny Cid — the former president of the Hialeah-Miami Lakes Republican Club — seemed to lump together the Capitol riot with last summer’s protests against racism and police brutality.

“The violence we saw today and the violence we saw this summer is never the answer,” Cid tweeted on Jan. 6. “What’s truly wrong with our society in its current state is that folks refuse to speak to each other. People shouldn’t be marginalized because their opinion might not fit yours.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also tweeted on the evening of the riot without mentioning Trump: “We are a democracy. A nation of laws, not men. We are governed by our Constitution, not mobs. Today’s violence was unacceptable. In America, the Constitution is King.”

Doral’s mayor, JC Bermudez, told the Herald that Jan. 6 was a “sad day” for the country, but not a reflection on “most elected Republican officials.”

Bermudez said he changed his party affiliation two decades ago from Democrat to Republican in the wake of the Elián González controversy. But as a mayor, he said, his job is to put partisan politics aside.

“I can’t worry about Republican or Democrat,” he said. “I’ve got to worry about getting the problems fixed.”

Implications for Hialeah politics

The implications of Hernandez’s decision to buck Hialeah political norms remain to be seen. Hernandez, the council president last year, is eligible to run for a third and final four-year term on the city council this November.

He told the Herald he is also weighing a run for Hialeah mayor. Bovo, the former county commissioner, revealed Tuesday that he, too, may seek the Hialeah mayor’s seat, while former city council members Isis Garcia-Martinez and Vivian Casals-Muñoz have already filed to run.

Hernandez said he has no current plans to run for county or state office and insisted that his decision to become a Democrat wasn’t made with political goals in mind.

“If you thought this was [strategic], look at the numbers. They’re just not there,” he said of the widespread support for Trump and other Republicans among Hialeah residents.

Carlos Hernandez, whose 10-year run as mayor will end this year due to term limits, was once an ally of Paul Hernandez but has increasingly been at odds with the councilman, who has criticized the mayor on various issues. Asked Tuesday for his thoughts on Hernandez’s decision to leave the Republican Party, the mayor struck a harsh tone, repeatedly referring to the councilman as a political “lightweight.”

“He’s not a politician with any following or anything like that,” the mayor said, adding that Hernandez’s new party affiliation is “not going to be a major loss or gain to either party.”

Told about the mayor’s comments, Hernandez said the mayor seemed to be resorting to insults, much like Trump.

“I’m going to continue to be who I’ve always been, regardless of any insults the mayor decides to hurl my way,” he said.