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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI have always stood with our first responders, and in the Florida House, I will continue fighting to make sure they have the resources, respect, and support they deserve. Public safety should never be political. It should always be about protecting people, strengthening communities, and standing up for those who stand up for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Suarez is running<\/a> to flip HD 64. Republican state Rep. Susan Vald\u00e9s is the incumbent, but is facing term limits. She was elected to the seat two years ago as a Democrat, but shortly after switched her party affiliation to Republican.<\/p>\n The district has a voter advantage for Democrats, who hold more than 37% of the electorate. Republican voters, meanwhile, account for nearly 29% of the district\u2019s voters, according to L2 voter data<\/a>.<\/p>\n Suarez doesn\u2019t have a clear path to the Democratic nomination. Three other Democrats are running, including John Rodriguez<\/a>, Luis Salazar<\/a>\u00a0and Jose Sanchez Sanchez.<\/p>\n Sanchez Sanchez filed for the race indicating his intent to qualify by petition. But with that deadline now passed, he did not obtain enough signatures<\/a>. He could still qualify by fee. Rodriguez only just entered the race<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Salazar likely presents the greatest challenge to Suarez. Salazar has been securing support<\/a> from local leaders. That includes Democratic state Sen. Brian Nathan, who recently upset Josie Tomkow in the Special Election for Senate District 14, making national headlines with a key Democratic flip.<\/p>\n Suarez\u2019s latest endorsements follow another nod this week from the Associated Industries of Florida<\/a>. Other prominent backers<\/a> include Hillsborough County Commissioner Harry Cohen, former CFO Alex Sink, and former state Sen.\u00a0Arthenia Joyner, among others.<\/p>\n Suarez is a third-generation Tampa native. During his tenure on the City Council, he also served eight years chairing the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority. He also served on boards for Zoo Tampa (then Lowry Park Zoo), the Florida Aquarium, the Tampa Museum of Art and Feeding Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n Additionally, he has worked as a mentor to young residents, offering internships in his office and helping select high school students obtain nominations to the U.S. Naval and Air Force Academies from former U.S. Sens.\u00a0Bob Graham\u00a0and\u00a0Bill Nelson\u00a0and U.S. Rep.\u00a0Kathy Castor.<\/p>\n Since his service on the City Council, Suarez has run for a few seats unsuccessfully. He lost in 2023 for a bid to return to the City Council, and in 2019 ran for Mayor, collecting just 5% of the vote in an eight-way race.<\/p>\n As an open race, HD 64 will likely garner a lot of attention. Vald\u00e9s shocked Democrats in December when she announced she was switching political parties, saying she was being ignored by the party. However, the move came less than a week after Vald\u00e9s\u00a0lost a bid<\/a>\u00a0to chair the Hillsborough County Democratic Party.<\/p>\n Two Republicans are filed in the race, Amaro Lionheart and Angel Ramos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Police Benevolent Association and the Hillsborough Fire Action Committee are endorsing Mike Suarez in his race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[121409,121410,90430,27211,121411,120828,121412,121413,121414,121415,62637,24830,135,137,136,18905],"class_list":["post-286460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-amaro-lionheart","tag-angel-ramos","tag-brandon-barclay","tag-brian-nathan","tag-florida-house-district-64","tag-hd-64","tag-hillsborough-fire-action-committee","tag-john-rodriguez","tag-jose-sanchez-sanchez","tag-luis-salazar","tag-mike-suarez","tag-susan-valdes","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-police-benevolent-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286460","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=286460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/728x903.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n