In one of the biggest and happiest surprises of the Miami-Dade 2020 elections results full of surprises is the Miami-Dade School Board race in District 9, where veteran Miami-Dade Commissioner Dennis Moss was beaten by young and inexperienced newcomer Luisa Santos.
The commissioner known for adjourning county meetings with an exclamation to “move it,” is moving along himself.
Moss had more money — $245,000 to her $143,000 — more name rec than her by far and the coveted teacher’s union endorsement (which both Ladra and Brandon thought was a mistake). But he leaned hard on those laurels and hardly campaigned — his last tweet was in February — while Santos had the momentum and grass roots resonance that comes with pounding the pavement.
“Like I told our team, we have heart and we have hustle,” Santos told Ladra when 95% of the count had her with 52% of the vote, a solid 4,600 vote lead.
“We built a movement of 100s of people who made it possible. Nothing can win over that,” Santos said.
Read related: For School Board District 9: Old pro with palanca vs grassroots newcomer
Her first move on the school board will be to expand on the listening tour she started during the campaign. “We met with hundreds of teachers, students and parents and learned from them what they want,” she said.
The priorities she wants to work on immediately include getting a hold of the COVID crisis impact on schools, with accurate and timely reporting. “So that parents can know their child is safe and teachers can feel safe at work.”
Santos also wants to expand the digital infrastructure so that more students have online access, increase attention and access to mental health resources and establish fair and effective metrics to make sure there are excellent schools in every neighborhood.
According to the results reported by the Miami-Dade Elections Department, Moss won the early voting tally by more than 1,000 votes and was only down 500 votes on Election Day. But he lost the vote-by-mail or absentee ballot total by more than 5,000 votes.
“I fell behind in the vote by mail ballots and was never able to make that up,” Moss told Ladra late Tuesday, conceding his loss. He said he did not have immediate plans, but did not rule out running for something again. Because, you know, what else is he gonna do?
“There may be something to look at for the future,” Moss said.
Newbie Luisa Santos beats Dennis Moss for Miami-Dade School Board added by Ladra on
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