We won’t suggest that the presidential candidacy of Francis X. Suarez, celebrity and ceremonial mayor of Miami, is the silliest of the dozen (and counting) who have launched campaigns for the Republican nomination.
The silliest know who they are, as do you. We needn’t further embarrass them here.
Suarez at least has a credible lane: born-and-reared member of an ethnic group important to the GOP. As our Karen Townsend noted in her splendid post covering Suarez’s announcement:
Suarez is young (45) and attractive. He’s good in interviews. He prides himself on unifying voters and growing the Republican tent. He has been elected twice as the Mayor of Miami. He is the son of Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor. Florida is the nation’s third-largest state and the Cuban vote is important. Cubans were reliably Republican voters until recent elections. Younger Cubans voters do not shy away from voting for Democrats. Suarez thinks he can grow the Hispanic vote, a growing demographic.
Political savant Kellyanne Conway, who apparently still has Donald Trump’s ear, has urged the Republican frontrunner (hoo boy) to have Suarez “on the short, short list for VP.”
Is this his gambit? Can Suarez’s candidacy really be about making himself a viable No. 2 on the GOP ticket? Please, Republican voters, say no. Suarez as the veep pick would be Kamala Harris minus the resume of achievement (that’s a joke, y’all) — a total cave to identity politics.
We will grant him this, not at all grudgingly: Suarez is capable of expressing, with precision and verve, opinions that motivate Republican voters. This, he told Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday, is Joe Biden’s America:
“It’s an America where the poor get poorer, it’s an America where America gets weaker, and it’s an America where the possibility of China being the lone superpower is something that frightens me to no end,. … ”
“What has changed and what has happened is we’ve gotten a taste of what a dysfunctional government can do to destroy our country in a short period of time … and if you take that out into the future, it is incredibly scary.”
Yes, a thousand times, yes. Well said, Mr. Mayor. Well spoken. Guess what. Serious thinkers make similar arguments (with links and quotes and footnotes and clever turns of phrase) throughout Hotair and the Greater Townhall Universe on an hourly basis. And, as this is written, none of us has filed paperwork to seek the White House. (Circumstances subject to change.)
Meanwhile, Hizzoner’s claim on our attention appears to be his pedigree and charm. These are better traits for an ambassador, which is essentially the role he’s served in two terms as Miami’s Chief Ribbon-Cutter. That’s not his fault, entirely. By law, Miami’s mayor is a maître d’ with an expense stipend and a better retirement plan.
But it is to Suarez’s detriment that he hasn’t sought an office that would demonstrate whether his abilities as an executive can match his obvious rhetorical skills. Anybody can talk a good game. The GOP needs some political Shohei Ohtanis. (Ron DeSantis, the widely skilled Florida governor, leaps to mind.)
So Francis X. Suarez comes to us with little more to show for his time in office than touting cryptocurrency, an affinity for rubbing shoulders with celebrities and a pleasing way with phraseology. That’s how the Other Side does things. Democrats love a good sermonizer. Historically — with the possible exception of Dan Quayle — Republicans like even their veep nominees to have Done Real Stuff.
It’s also useful to have Republicans on the ticket who vote, you know, Republican. Suarez twice chose Democrats over Donald Trump, as well as voting for radical Democrat Andrew Gillum over the aforementioned Mr. DeSantis in 2018.
Why? Because, Suarez explained, quoting no GOP-approved economist philosopher ever, Gillum favored jacking up the minimum wage, and a “basic standard of living” was “a fundamental human right.”
With that in mind, if it make sense to have a Cuban-American on the ticket — that is, if you cannot see a genuinely accomplished Indian-American or an up-from-humble-beginnings Black American as the No. 2 — then there is at least one other option.
You want to put a Cuban-American from Florida’s Gold Coast who can effectively describe how the ideal of American exceptionalism is available to every legal resident, but has actually developed and advanced conservative policies? Marco Rubio, who also truly has a way with words, is your Latino.
