{"id":23198,"date":"2025-10-28T02:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T02:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:45:06","slug":"early-voting-begins-in-hialeah-mayoral-race-as-candidates-clash-over-code-violations-taxes-and-calls-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/23198\/","title":{"rendered":"Early voting begins in Hialeah mayoral race as candidates clash over code violations, taxes, and calls for change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in three Miami-Dade cities will elect new mayors next week, and all eyes are on Hialeah, the county’s second-largest and most Hispanic city, where early voting began Monday.<\/p>\n

At the John F. Kennedy Library, the city’s only early voting site, four of the five candidates were on hand to greet supporters as residents trickled in to cast their ballots.<\/p>\n

For longtime resident Isis Gradaille, who has called Hialeah home for nearly six decades, voting early was about demanding change.<\/p>\n

“New blood, someone who can do the right thing,” she said. “It’s horrible, the water, the taxes \u2014 honesty is what I’m looking for.”<\/p>\n

Her daughter, Desiree Martin, shared her frustration, saying local politics often stay within tight circles.<\/p>\n

“It ends up becoming a ‘click,'” she said. “Then the next generation that comes are the kids and people they’ve brought up under them.”<\/p>\n

Interim Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves, the first woman ever to lead Hialeah in its 100-year history, is campaigning to make her role permanent. Backed by former Mayor Esteban Bovo, Garcia-Roves is running on promises to lower taxes without compromising public safety.<\/p>\n

“Municipal elections are as important as presidential elections,” she said. “We make the decisions that affect residents every day.”<\/p>\n

But Garcia-Roves has been under scrutiny following a Miami Herald report detailing alleged code violations at her home<\/a>, including unpermitted fences, columns, and a boat cover. She maintains she has not received any violations.<\/p>\n

“As of right now, I have not received one single violation,” she told CBS News Miami. “The Department of Code Enforcement and Building needs to be reformed.”<\/p>\n

Garcia-Roves said the home belonged to her late father and that accusations are politically motivated.<\/p>\n

“If you see who created it, it was an employee of one of my opponents,” she added.<\/p>\n

That opponent, Bryan Calvo, 27, is an attorney and the youngest candidate in the race. He has centered his campaign on government transparency and eliminating lifetime pensions for elected officials.<\/p>\n

“How can we tell people to follow the building code when the mayor doesn’t?” Calvo asked. “As far as I know, she’s been the property owner for the last six years.”<\/p>\n

Another contender, Councilman Jesus Tundidor, has served since 2019 and holds a degree in political science. He’s often clashed with Garcia-Roves on policy and priorities.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is going to have issues with their home,” Tundidor said. “But you can’t have open violations at your house while your administration goes after residents for theirs.”<\/p>\n

Mark Anthony Salvat, a real estate agent branding himself as an anti-establishment outsider, said Hialeah voters are fed up with recycled promises.<\/p>\n

“We’re no longer interested in traditional politicians who promise the stars and the moon \u2014 and then do nothing,” Salvat said.<\/p>\n

Early voting runs through Nov. 2, with Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To win outright, a candidate must secure 50% plus one of the votes. If no one reaches that threshold, the top two contenders will advance to a runoff on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

As voters like Gradaille and her daughter continue to file in, one message rings clear: Hialeah’s residents want more than campaign slogans. They want results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters in three Miami-Dade cities will elect new mayors next week, and all eyes are on Hialeah, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2811,225,227,226,1638,1064],"class_list":{"0":"post-23198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-hialeah","10":"tag-hialeah-headlines","11":"tag-hialeah-news","12":"tag-hialeah-police","13":"tag-miami-dade"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}