This April’s interesting Coral Gables election just got more interesting: Mayra Joli, the “nodding lady” from President Donald Trump‘s Miami town hall earlier this year has joined the Group 2 commission contest.
Jolly filed paperwork Tuesday to run in an already crowded seat that is shaping up as a battle between Jose Valdes-Fauli, the brother of the current mayor, and Tania Cruz-Gimenez, the daughter-in-law of the former Miami-Dade mayor, now a congressman. She is her own treasurer.
The Dominican-American immigration attorney was already well known in Miami Trump circles when she became nationally infamous in October as the lady very enthusiastically and exaggeratedly nodding in agreement with Trump and giving him thumbs up during his dueling town hall on NBC. You know? The one that was supposedly for undecided voters?
Saturday Night Live did a skit on it. She has a parody account on twitter.
And now she’s running in the Gables.
God is great. It’s like Christmas all over again for Ladra.
Even though it’s a non partisan race, Joli has the letters (REP) after her name on the city’s link to campaign documents. Claudia Miro, another candidate who was president of the Women’s Republican Club Miami Federated, is going to want one, too, if the city doesn’t fix that.
Joli ran as a Trump-happy independent for Congress in District 27 in 2018, which was ultimately won by former Congresswoman Donna Shalala, a Democrat who lost the seat this year. Joli got 2.5% of the vote, or 6,255 votes, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Read related: Tania Cruz-Gimenez strikes out on her own, runs for Coral Gables commission
But she also got Sammy Sosa’s endorsement. Or at least that’s what she told Trump after the October town hall in a video she posted on social media. Trump misunderstood her.
“He will adore you. I agree. Sammy will adore you,” he told Joli, who is also a fashionista who won the Mrs. Coral Gables contest in 2015 (yeah, Ladra didn’t know there was such a thing either). Trump puts his hand to his face like he’s telling her something devilish — or hitting on her.
Trump was dismissive and racist, as usual. He’s the one who brought up Sammy Sosa when she said she was Dominican. She was just sad and pathetic, which is why you can’t even find the video on her social media now. Lucky for us, CNN has it in one of their news stories here.
Also running in Group 2 are attorney Rhonda Anderson, perennial candidate and downtown property owner Jackson “Rip” Holmes and someone named Alexander Luis Haq. But between Cruz-Gimenez, Valdes-Fauli and, now, Joli — whose attorney husband is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami — they won’t get much attention.
Ladra can’t wait to see the debates.
Trump loving ‘nodding lady’ Mayra Joli runs for Coral Gables city commission added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
