Destiny Alvarez and Judge Mavel Ruiz are running for judge in 11th Circuit Court Group 67.
A young lawyer narrowly beat out an incumbent judge in a judicial race that became contentious due to the judge’s controversial ruling in the Trump presidential library case.
Destiny Alvarez, 30, a Coral Gables attorney of five years, appeared to avoid a runoff, ahead by just over 1 percentage point. She is unseating Mavel Ruiz, 65, a Miami-Dade judge of more than a decade.
Final election results put Alvarez at 50.51% of the vote and Ruiz at 49.49%. More than 224,000 ballots were counted in the razor-thin race.
Alvarez, who has handled civil litigation, insurance disputes and HOA and condominium law, hasn’t tried a case in front of a jury or a judge.
Alvarez’s successful bid for the judicial seat was a topic of conversation in legal and political circles, namely due to the nature of the race — and the allegations Judge Ruiz made in a lawsuit she filed. Judicial races are supposed to be non-partisan.
In June, the Florida Bulldog published an article detailing how Alvarez’s campaign was being bankrolled by Trump allies who were irate by Ruiz’s ruling in the presidential library case.
In 2025, ruling in a lawsuit brought by historian Marvin Dunn, Ruiz blocked the transfer of land by Miami Dade College in downtown Miami for the Trump presidential library. Ruiz found that the historian would likely be able to prove that the college’s Board of Trustees denied the public access to weigh in on the plans before they voted.
Ruiz reversed her block on the land transfer after trustees took a do-over vote, and dismissed the case. Afterward, the college Board of Trustees successfully sought to disqualify her from presiding over future cases related to the college and the library, saying she was personally biased in favor of Dunn. Ruiz hugged him after a hearing.
Judicial race ends in a lawsuit
In a lawsuit filed shortly before the election, Ruiz accused Alvarez of conspiring with politically connected individuals to send out text messages that attack her partiality as a judge and falsely state she was a communist who hates the United States.
Ruiz, in the suit, alleges that a “network of politically affiliated persons” recruited and financed Alvarez to run against her. They then organized the “coordinated campaign of disinformation” directly tied to her ruling.
READ MORE: Candidate conspired to take down Miami judge over Trump ruling, suit alleges
Ruiz was the target of mass text blasts that labeled the incumbent judge of more than a decade a “communist” who hates the United States and uses the “judiciary as a weapon to attack conservative patriots in our courts,” according to the complaint. One of the messages, sent in Spanish, also said Ruiz “prevented’ President Donald J. Trump from building his Presidential Library in Miami.”
“The accusation that a sitting judge is a ‘communist’ who hates her country is a false assertion of fact, not rhetorical hyperbole,” Ruiz’s lawsuit said. “It imputes to [Ruiz] allegiance to an ideology and to organizations devoted to the overthrow of the government of the United States, disloyalty to her country, and characteristics and a condition incompatible with the impartial exercise of judicial office.”
Ruiz also sued several political committees and organizations; Nicholas Alvarez, Alvarez’s husband, who is a political lobbyist; Alejandro Miranda, a political operative and manager of two of the PACs; and Damian Tapia, the registered agent of several of the PACS.
READ MORE: Candidate wants lawsuit accusing her of conspiring against Miami judge thrown out
In a motion to dismiss, Alvarez’s attorney Brian O. Cross stated that Ruiz’s lawsuit is an abuse of power intended to intimidate the judge’s adversaries and silence “quintessential political opinion and rhetorical hyperbole.”
The filing also says the lawsuit against Alvarez targets political opinions and rhetorical statements that are protected by the First Amendment.
“The message to every Miami-Dade voter, donor, and volunteer is unmistakable: support this judge’s opponent, and this judge will put you in a caption,” the motion says.
This story was originally published August 18, 2026 at 10:48 PM.
Miami Herald
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.