Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien secured a second and final term representing District 2 on Tuesday night, scoring 78% of the vote over two challengers whose funding and name recognition she dwarfed.
Second-place candidate Miguel “Skip” Quintero took 13% of the vote, while Ernst Jean Louis finished third with a 9% share of ballots cast in his favor.
The win keeps the county’s first Haitian American woman Commissioner at County Hall through 2030, in a district home to the largest Haitian population in Miami-Dade.
“Tonight, District 2 has spoken. And District 2 spoke with confidence. District 2 spoke with purpose. District 2 spoke with one clear voice: the work must continue. So tonight, we celebrate,” Bastien said in a statement.
“Tomorrow, we go back to work. Because this election was never simply about winning another term. It was about earning another opportunity to serve. And I will honor that opportunity the same way I have honored this community for more than four decades: with passion, with courage, with integrity, and with action. Thank you for the honor to serve as your commissioner!”
Bastien’s former colleague at County Hall, Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, celebrated the win.
“Marleine has devoted her life to expanding opportunity, lifting up families, and ensuring every community has a voice in government,” she said in a statement. “I was proud to serve alongside her on the County Commission, where I saw firsthand her compassion, determination, and deep commitment to the residents she represents. I know Miami-Dade will continue to benefit from her leadership, and I wish her every success in the term ahead.”
District 2 includes large parts of North Miami and Opa-locka, as well as smaller sections of Hialeah, Miami and North Miami Beach. It also covers the unincorporated neighborhoods of Biscayne Gardens, Liberty City and North Central Dade.
The district leans strongly Democratic and is home to the largest Haitian population in the county.
The Miami-Dade Commission is officially nonpartisan, so all three candidates appeared on the Aug. 18 Primary ballot without party labels.
Bastien, a 67-year-old Democrat, chairs the Commission’s Housing Committee and ran on her record over the past four years, which includes advancing more than 1,200 affordable housing units in her district, placing more than 30 county-owned parcels into the Infill Housing Program and helping secure $3 million for child-care scholarships.
She told WLRN in January that her “work is not finished and the progress we’ve made deserves to be built upon.”
She is a licensed clinical social worker and founded the nonprofit Family Action Network Movement, which serves thousands of Florida residents each year.
Bastien has been the Board’s sharpest voice against President Donald Trump’s revocation of temporary protected status for Haitians, and she cast the lone dissenting vote in December 2024 against Hialeah’s request to add Trump’s name to Palm Avenue.
In terms of endorsements and money, she was a titan in the race. She carried support from major labor groups like AFSCME Florida and abortion rights nonprofit Ruth’s List Florida.
The Miami Herald editorial board recommended her to voters, citing her grassroots background as the perspective the Commission needs amid budget shortfalls and a housing crunch.
By the end of July, Bastien had raised more than $119,000 through her campaign account, with contributions from real estate firms, consulting companies and political committees, including one tied to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
She stacked another $1.09 million through her state-level political committee, Moving Forward Together, and had more than $674,000 remaining between the two pots of cash heading into August.
Quintero, 47, is a trapeze school owner, former used car salesman and self-described First Amendment auditor who ran for Miami-Dade Mayor in 2024. A registered Democrat until roughly 2024, he is now a Libertarian.
He campaigned on promises to improve county code compliance, increase government transparency, lower rent by boosting housing supply, and create jobs through arts, trades and entrepreneurship. His run for office began after a yearslong dispute with county code enforcement over the trapeze operation he opened in his Pinewood backyard in 2021.
Quintero raised more than $13,000 through his campaign account. A separate political committee, run by his campaign manager and not overseen by Quintero, raised another $10,000.
Together, the two accounts had about $5,500 left as of July 31.
Jean Louis, 66, works as a security guard and founded a Creole-language newspaper, according to Axios Miami. He was a first-time candidate who switched from independent to Republican.
He told the Herald that, if he won office, he would focus on residents often overlooked in county decisions, including people with disabilities, seniors and veterans.
County records show Jean Louis raised $1,300 and spent all but $270 of it.