Miami-Dade Commission races - a tale of two counties for Districts 2 and 6

Marleine Bastien and Kevin Marino Cabrera won their respective races

The last two new Miami-Dade Commissioners to be elected Tuesday couldn’t be farther apart on the political spectrum.

Activist and social worker Marleine Bastien, who beat North Miami Mayor Philipe Bien-Aime, 59% to 41%, will replace Commissioner Jean Monestime in District 2. She is a Democrat.

Proud boy affiliate, lobbyist and political insider Kevin Marino Cabrera, the former state director for the Donald Trump 2020 campaign, will replace termed out Rebeca Sosa in District 6 after beating Coral Gables Commissioner Jorge Fors, Jr., by an even wider margin, 62% to 38%. He is a Republican.

“I’m humbled and honored by the overwhelming level of support from the voters in District 6,” Cabrera said Tuesday night in a statement. “I look forward to representing the residents of District 6 and ensuring they have a voice at County Hall.”

“Tonight’s victory is for ALL the residents of District 2,” Bastien tweeted. “I am humbled and honored to serve as your next County Commissioner for District 2. Together, we will work for a better and more inclusive District 2 that gives everyone a fighting chance to thrive.” Thank you for your vote of confidence!

While they use the same language — both are humbled and honored — these two new commissioners couldn’t be more different.

Bastien has been an activist in the Haitian American community for decades. She is founder and director of the Family Action Network Movement, a social services organization focusing on low-income residents and issues surrounding immigration, housing, health access, education reform, gender equity, gentrification, climate justice and human rights.

Formerly chair of the Florida Immigration Coalition and vice-chair of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, Bastien has worked on many important campaigns over the past 30 years, including: The Haitian Immigration Refugee Fairness Act of 1998, Temporary Protected Status, The Dream Act, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Living Wage and Miami-Dade County’s Human Rights Ordinance, the Children’s Trust Campaigns (as a treasurer and spokesperson for the Black Community with Congresswoman Carrie Meek).

She formed the Justice Coalition for the Haitian Children of Guantanamo and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to lend her expertise on a discussion of the devastating impact that prolonged detention at Guantanamo had on Haitian children in 1995. She has testified twice in front of the U.S. Congress, OAS Human Rights Committee, and the United Nations (in Geneva and the Philippines). She is a founding member of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, the Haitian Neighborhood Center (Sant La), the Center for Haitian Studies, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Girl Advocacy Project (GAP), and many other community organizations.

Bastien trailed Bien Amie in the six-way primary in August. With 560 votes between them, Bien Amie had 26% and Bastien had 24%. After that first round, she scored an endorsement from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

And she was woefully underfunded. While Bien Amie had about $1.5 million between his campaign account and his political action committee — much of that coming from development and real estate interests — Bastien had raised a comparatively modest $334,028, much of that in small checks from residents. Hers was a truly grass roots campaign.

Cabrera, for his part, led the primary with 43% of the vote next to Fors’ 26%. On Tuesday, he won every category — mail-in ballots, Election Day and early voting, where he got more than twice as many votes as Fors. He also led in campaign spending, having raised more than $2.2 million between his campaign account and his political action committee, Dade First. Fors raised another $967,637 bringing the total in this race to more than $3 million.

The husband of State Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, the new commissioner worked as an intern with Sen. Marco Rubio and later with former Congressman Carlos Curbelo before he became Florida State Director of tcampaign. After that victory, he got a job as senior vice president at Mercury, a public affairs firm. One of the company’s clients is a company that is partly owned by a serving member of the Communist Party’s national legislature in Beijing which supports the ethnocide against the Uighur people of Xinjiang province.

But he is most famous for an incident in 2018, when he was video recorded pounding on the door of then Congresswoman Donna Shalala and shouting menacing remarks to Nancy Pelosi, who was here at the time. Next to Marino Cabrera are several Proud Boys also shouting in unison. Cabrera is smiling. He looks so happy in his element.

Marino Cabrera has said won’t lobby in Miami-Dade now that he’s elected — because that would be just too much already, right? — but even lobbying in Tallahassee can present a conflict of interest.

Ladra doubts very much that these two new commissioners be on the same voting side a lot. Instead, maybe their votes will cancel each other out.

Bastien and Cabrera will soon join former Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg, who won District 4 to replace Sally Heyman with no opposition, Anthony Rodriguez and Doral Mayor JC Bermudez, who won the races in districts 10 and 12 replacing Javier Souto and Jose “Pepe” Diaz, respectively, in the August primary. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins also won her first round against two challengers.

The new commissioners will be sworn in on Nov. 22.

Kevin Marino Cabrera, Marleine Bastien

Miami-Dade Commission races — a tale of two counties for Districts 2 and 6 added by Ladra on November 8, 2022
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