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June 14 (UPI) -- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, a day after his city was the site of the first federal arraignment of a former president. Suarez filed his paperwork on Wednesday, joining a field of a dozen candidates vying for the Republican nomination. The 45-year-old has served two terms as mayor of Miami after being elected in 2017.
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Along with joining an already vast field of candidates in the Republican Party, Suarez has also become the third Floridian to enter the race. Former President Donald Trump, who pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to allegedly mishandling classified documents, was among the first candidates to begin formally campaigning. Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the race in May.
Suarez, a Cuban American, is the first person of Hispanic ethnicity to file for a 2024 presidential bid from either party. He has stood behind Gov. DeSantis on some of his most controversial agenda items, including the "Don't Say Gay" law that bans discussions and instruction about sex and gender identity in schools.
When Disney cancelled plans for a new campus over DeSantis' incendiary policies and repeated provocations, Suarez said the governor had acted on a personal vendetta. The expansion was expected to create about 2,000 jobs.
"Look, he took an issue that was a winning issue that we all agreed on, which was parental rights for K through third-graders," Suarez said. " "And it looks like now it's -- spite or maybe potentially a personal vendetta, which has cost the state now potentially 2,000 jobs in a billion-dollar investment."
His father, Xavier Suarez, also was Miami's mayor, serving from 1985 to 1993, and again in 1997 to 1998. However, he was removed from office in 1998 after an investigation determined that his election win was due to voter fraud. Francis Suarez, who was 20 at the time, testified in the civil case.
