After having been part of the 2016 presidential campaign, Latinas For 
Trump co-founder Denise Galvez, a Miami mom with a boutique marketing shop, wants to run for Miami city commission.
Galvez filed paperwork earlier this month indicating she intends to run as Denise Galvez Turros in District 4, which is the seat Commissioner Francis Suarez will have to resign from when he qualifies for the mayor’s race this summer.
You might recognize her from TV. Galvez did a lot of television and radio interviews last year as a Latina Trump supporter. And while that may be a liability in some 2017 and 2018 electiions, this city district — which includes Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Coral Gate and Flagami — might not be one of those. Trumpistas might do well here among the Cuban super Republicans.
Read related story: Local Latinas come out for Trump with Brickell event
“I was being asked to consider other positions in state office by people in the party,” Galvez said. “But I wasn’t going to do that to my kids and my family.”
Meanwhile, she was attending local events and hearing from local candidates.
“There was nobody I could see myself backing,” she said.
Someone suggested she stop looking for somebody else and throw her own hat into the ring. The timing made sense for her, to start campaigning over the summer. “I started to make calls and talk to people and the more excited they got, the more exicted I got. ‘This is your backyard,’ they would tell me.”
It’s a rare opportunity as an open seat, even though Galvez will face at least three other hopefuls so far: perennial 
candidates Ralph Rosado and Manolo Reyes as well as wannabe political consultant Tony Diaz. The one that concerned her the most was Rosado. The two are friendly. She has supported his causes and both went to City Hall to protest conditions at Douglas Park.
“I’ve known Ralph for a long time and have been a friend. I’ve helped him with other things,” Galvez said. But she feels he is out of touch with the district’s needs, campaigning on economic development and The Underline project. She says crime is the number one issue of concern to the people in her Shenandoah neighborhood. Her car has been broken into. Her husband, reknown musician and popular Miami High School Band Director Juan Turros, had his stolen.
Read related story: Patient Ralph Rosado re-launches Miami Commission bid
Rosado and Reyes (Diaz hasn’t raised a dime) may have had a head start with fundraising and canvassing, but let Ladra warn you know, Denise is a force to be reckoned with. She is a workaholic with boundless energy who is not afraid to say what she means and mean what she says, even when she is dead wrong, which she is often on the Trump stuff. And I suspect she will be able to raise money from some party people who may feel like they owe her one. Because they do.
She doesn’t need much. She is a marketing guru who will 
do a lot of her own media and has the name recognition that a year of TV appearances gets ya. But it will be important to have some.
Rosado has raised a whopping $436,790, according to the last finance report filed this month and counting through April 30. But he’s been fundraising for exactly four years, since April of 2013. he has also spent $165,998 of that so he has about $270,790 left, according to the last report as of April 30. Reyes has raised $140,940 and spent $82,900, leaving less than $60K in hand. But he’s got more momentum this time around.
Ladra can see where a smart, well-spoken woman might find an opportunity among these three Hispanic men.
Normally, this would be a good thing. It would be nice to have some estrogen up on that dais. And she will definitely use that sole female candidate thing to her advantage.
But Denise’s blind defense of everything Trump does causes me to worry about a future with “alternative facts” in Miami city government.
Trump Latina Denise Galvez runs for Miami city commission added by Ladra on
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