Francis Xavier Suarez ( ; born October 6, 1977) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 43rd mayor of Miami from 2017 to 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a member of the Miami City Commission from 2009 to 2017. He is the son of former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez.
Suarez is a graduate of Florida International University (FIU), where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance. After that he earned a J.D. from the University of Florida in 2004. He was first elected to represent the 4th district in the Miami City Commission in 2009 and was reelected in 2011 and 2015. He served until 2017 when he was elected mayor of Miami. He was re-elected in 2021. During his mayoralty, Suarez has been noted for his advocacy for cryptocurrency.
Suarez declared his candidacy in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, but withdrew from the race after he failed to qualify for the first primary debate.
Early life, education, and early career The oldest of four siblings, Suarez is the son of Rita and Xavier Suarez, two-time Miami mayor. His aunt, Lala, is the mother of U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney from West Virginia.
Suarez attended Immaculata-LaSalle High School. He graduated in 1996 and went on to graduate in the top 10% of his class from Florida International University (FIU) with a bachelor's degree in finance. Following college, Suarez chose to attend the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, receiving his J.D. degree cum laude in 2004.
Suarez became an attorney with the law firm Greenspoon Marder, specializing in corporate and real estate transactions.
Suarez's father, Xavier Suarez, served as mayor of Miami in the 1990s.
Suarez was serving on his local homeowner association when a home burglary prompted his motivation to get involved in local government.
Miami city commissioner (2009–2017) Tomás Regalado had resigned from the Miami City Commission's District 4 seat in 2009 to become mayor. The special election to fill the vacancy on November 3, 2009 resulted in a runoff election when any candidate failed to reach a majority of the returns: Suarez (44.74 percent), Manolo Reyes (40.50 percent), Denis Rod (5.15 percent) and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts (9.61 percent). District 4 represented portions of the city's westernmost reaches. The runoff election on November 17, 2009 had Suarez receiving 51.41 percent of the vote. He was subsequently reelected unopposed in both 2011 and 2015.
In January 2013 the Miami Herald wrote that in his first three years on the City Commission "Suarez has had mixed results passing policy." Suarez introduced a controversial motion that was passed by the City Commission, resulting in a decrease to city employees salaries. He also was an advocate for changes that were made to the zoning code of the city aimed at easing the ability to construct affordable housing. However, Suarez was unsuccessful in a push to move the city from using a weak mayor form of government to adopting a strong mayor form of government.
Suarez was initially a close ally of Mayor Regaldo. In late 2011, Regaldo asked Suarez to hold the chairmanship of the City Commission. After Regaldo was at odds with Police Chief Miguel Exposito, Suarez introduced a controversial motion to fire Exposito, which was passed by the City Commission. However, in mid-2012 Suarez became critical of Regaldo's leadership, attacking high turnover among Regaldo's staff and questioning the finance department's ability to balance the city's budget on time. Suarez even came to criticize Regaldo's feud with former police chief Exposito. Suarez ultimately announced a campaign to unseat Regaldo in the 2013 mayoral election.
Suarez was an opponent of red light cameras in the city, which had become a controversial issue in Miami. In 2016, the City Commission ratified an ordinance sponsored by Suarez which banned the practice of conversion therapy on minors.
2013 mayoral campaign
Suarez was widely anticipated to challenge incumbent Miami mayor Tomás Regaldo in the November 2013 mayoral election. In anticipation of his campaign, Suarez fundraised significantly at the end of 2012, with his "political communications organization" raising $460,000. This eclipsed the $160,000 that Regaldo had raised for his reelection by the end of 2012. Contributors to Suarez included Jackson Health System CEO and former Miami city manager Carlos A. Migoya as well as former Miami mayor Manny Diaz.
On January 15, 2013, Suarez officially announced his candidacy in a press conference he held outside of his personal resident in the Coral Gate neighborhood. Suarez's father attended the press conference and supported Suarez's candidacy. Suarez stated that, if elected, he would provide the city with "forward-thinking and innovative" governance. Suarez declared his campaign platform would focus on increasing the city's emergency financial reserves, helping small businesses, strengthen the city's police department, and elevating the city's national prominence. Upon the launch of Suarez's campaign, political analysts predicted a competitive election. Despite his strong fundraising and support from prominent political players, Suarez was regarded to be the underdog due to Regaldo's popularity with likely voters. Suarez being the scion of a former mayor was regarded as both a boon and a potential liability, as voter sentiments on his father's tenures as mayor varied, with his father having both a strong fan base but also carrying negative baggage with other voters. Suarez's age (thirty years Regaldo's junior) was seen as a likely liability to his candidacy, opening him up to accusations of inexperience. However, Suarez claimed his candidacy provided, "an opportunity for our generation to take a leadership role in the community."
For his campaign, Suarez hired experienced local political consultants, a media firm based in Washington, D.C., as well as a Virginia-based pollster. However, the primary actors in Suarez's campaign operation were relatives of his, including his cousin Steve Suarez, who served as his campaign manager.
Suarez's candidacy garnered the support of fellow Miami city commissioners Marc Sarnon, Michelle Spence-Jones, and Willy Gort.
Suarez's candidacy was rocked by controversies regarding the conduct of staffers. Two staffers became the subject of criminal investigations for forging signatures of acquaintances on absentee ballot request forms. Another staffer submitted twenty online absentee ballot requests in violation of Florida law, which dictated that online requests could only be made by the voter or a member of their immediate family. Suarez's father was accused of possibly attempting to influence a witness in the investigations when he reached out by email one of the voters for whom a ballot request had been illegally submitted. These scandals led to both this staffer and the campaign manager (Steve Suarez) each pleading guilty to misdemeanors resulting in probation. These scandals ultimately led Suarez to end his campaign on August 26, 2013. In ending his candidacy, Suarez cited several factors including "mistakes" made by his campaign team.
Mayor of Miami (2017–2025)
Suarez was elected mayor of Miami in the 2017 election. The Miami Herald noted that his candidacy benefited from a strong effort to motivate voters to cast absentee ballots for him. Suarez is Miami's first local-born mayor. He is also the first mayor to not be born in Cuba since 1996, when mayor Stephen P. Clark died in office. Suarez was re-elected in the 2021 Miami mayoral election, receiving over 78% of the vote in the first ballot.
Miami is governed by a weak mayor authority system. The city's mayorship is a part-time position with limited power over the city's administration via a city manager. The mayor has several powers: a veto over city commission legislation and the ability to declare emergencies. A mayor has 10 days to veto city commission actions otherwise by default they becomes operational. The mayor can also hire and fire the city manager who runs Miami's government, but the city commissioners can overrule a mayor's choice. Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald noted in June 2023 that Suarez has managed to position himself as, "the most high-profile figure" in Miami's city government.
In June 2020, Suarez was elected by American mayors to serve as the second vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors and in June 2021, he was elected as the first vice president of the organization. From June 2022 to June 2023, he served as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Suarez was included in Fortune magazine's 2021 list of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders".
As mayor, Suarez was frequently absent from City Commission meetings. He defended this decision, claiming that being hands-off of City Commission proceedings allowed him to better deal with the personalities on the commission, which he characterized as being a chaotic body whose members had pronounced personalities and heavy egos.
Unsuccessful "strong mayor" ballot measure As mayor, Suarez once again pushed to transition the city to a strong mayor system. A November 2018 municipal referendum was held on a ballot measure that would have changed the mayor's authority, with a heavy majority of voters rejecting such a change. The adoption of the ballot measure, which would have led to the mayor having power over city administration (including power over staffing offices that administer permitting and zoning departments), had been supported by many of the city's largest real estate developers, real estate brokers, and land use lawyers. More the $1.2 million was raised from such sources for Suarez's political action committee to promote a "yes" vote.
Development As mayor, Suarez has overseen a $400 million municipal bond initiative, sometimes called the Miami Forever Bond, to combat rising sea levels and support affordable housing. The accelerated population growth Miami has experienced since 2020 (which has included an influx of millionaires and billionaires) has contributed to a severe shortage of the city's supply of affordable housing, with Miami seeing a 48% increase from 2019 to 2023 to its median cost for single family residences (as measured by the Miami Association of Realtors).
Suarez played an important role in securing narrow city commission passage of approval for Nu Stadium and its related urban development project. The centerpiece of the project is a soccer specific stadium to be constructed by the ownership of Major League Soccer's Inter Miami CF. The stadium will be built on land that was a city-owned golf course.
In the final year of his mayoralty, Suarez voiced his support for plans to construct of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library in Downtown Miami.
Digitalization of bureaucratic processes Suarez has advocated for the modernizing of Miami's bureaucracy. In 2018, the city adopted the Electronic Plans Review System to digitize the submission of site plans and zoning requests to the Planning and Zoning Department. This was something that Suarez had pushed for. Miami further digitized its bureaucracy by adopting the eStart system to digitize its process for obtaining building permits. Suarez touted this as streamlining the ability for businesses to get needed permits. Suarez proposed eStart in 2019, and it was launched in January 2021.
Climate change Suarez acknowledged that rising sea levels resulting from climate change pose a challenge for Miami. In February 2019 Suarez wrote an article with former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon on how Miami is defending itself from the effects of climate change.