Former Rep. James Bush III is headed back to Tallahassee to serve a district he previously represented across three separate stints.
Bush took 49% of the vote Tuesday to win a four-way Democratic Primary for House District 109, which doubled as the General Election, since no Republican qualified for the north Miami-Dade County seat.
Opa-locka Mayor John Taylor finished second with 32%, followed by Satin Fye and Cutberth “Broadway” Harewood, who received 10% and 8.5% of the vote, respectively.
The win is a major comeback for Bush, who lost the HD 109 seat to outgoing Miami Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt in 2022 and fell to her again in 2024.
Gantt gave the seat up this year to run for Senate District 34.
HD 109 covers Miami Gardens, Opa-locka, Liberty City, West Little River and the unincorporated Brownsville, Gladeview and Pinewood neighborhoods in north Miami-Dade County.
Bush was the only candidate to have held the seat, serving three separate stints between 1992 and 2022.
Bush told Florida Politics this month that his priorities were public education, affordable housing, healthcare access and small business support, and that he would file a bill to add more workforce housing.
Bush’s loss four years ago was preceded by notable discord with his party. He was the lone Democrat to vote for both Florida’s 15-week abortion ban — now reduced to six weeks — and the Parental Rights in Education law that critics called “Don’t Say Gay.”
In 2021, he was the only Democrat to back withdrawing Florida workplaces from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversight.
Last year, he sued Gantt and three organizations for defamation over campaign ads, seeking more than $1 million.
Bush raised $41,000 through his campaign account and an eponymous political committee he opened in June. The $29,000 the PC collected came exclusively from the Florida branch of the American Federation of Children, whose funding overwhelmingly comes from charter school interests.
Taylor, 37, has served as Opa-locka Mayor since 2022, after winning a City Commission seat in 2020 and serving a year as Vice Mayor. A lifelong resident of the city and a state health inspector for more than seven years, he gave up a re-election bid to run for the House.
His tenure coincided with a turnaround for a city long under state financial oversight: multiple consecutive clean audits, a lowered millage rate, reduced debt and a new police station.
His campaign website listed his priorities as lowering costs, expanding affordable housing, supporting small businesses, strengthening public safety and broadening access to social services and healthcare.
He told the Miami Herald that the state’s Live Local Act, which proponents say will help expand Florida’s affordable housing inventory by granting developers broad new allowances, went too far in preempting local governments.
Gantt endorsed him, as did the Florida Medical Association PAC and the Herald editorial board.
He led the field in fundraising — more than $56,000 collected through his campaign account, plus additional support from a political committee controlled by influential consultant Christian Ulvert.
Taylor’s family has a complicated history in Opa-locka politics. His mother, Myra Taylor, previously served as Mayor and was once suspended after an indictment. She and Taylor’s father pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in 2005. His father, half-brother and aunt were also arrested in 2012 on campaign finance charges tied to her 2010 campaign.
Fye, who turns 40 later this month, is a flight attendant and union delegate. Her campaign website framed her candidacy around lived experience rather than credentials, describing her as a union leader raising two sons “while navigating the same rising costs facing working families.”
Her platform centered on three concerns she says she hears repeatedly: rising costs of living; the need for a better route to homeownership, business ownership and savings; and that a child’s neighborhood shouldn’t determine how far they can go.
She told The Miami Times she’s focused on affordability, public schools, healthcare and food access, and flagged OSHA complaints at a district Amazon facility and a planned AI data center in West Little River.
She raised the least in the field, collecting less than $6,000 through almost 70 outside donations, plus $1,800 in self-loans that are refundable if unspent.
Harewood, 63, founded Liberty City’s Broadway Art District and the 305 Hip Hop Museum. Locals affectionately call him the “Mayor of Liberty City.”
He told The Miami Times his priorities are public education, stopping residential displacement, supporting small businesses and safety.
He also opposes AI data centers over their potential effect on utility bills and, according to the Herald, backs the Live Local Act.
Harewood raised close to $16,000 through July 31. Nearly two-thirds of it — $10,000 — came from his bank account, but he did not report the gains as self-loans.