{"id":33588,"date":"2025-11-05T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33588\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:46:11","slug":"hialeah-voters-pick-bryan-calvo-as-first-new-elected-mayor-in-5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33588\/","title":{"rendered":"Hialeah voters pick Bryan Calvo as first new elected Mayor in 5 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over six months after Jackie Garcia-Roves made history as Hialeah\u2019s first woman Mayor<\/a>, voters in the city put a man back in the job.<\/p>\n

With 41 of 45 precincts reporting, former City Council member Bryan Calvo had 53% of the vote to supplant Garcia-Roves while also outpacing three others \u2014 Council member Jes\u00fas Tundidor, Bernardo \u201cBenny\u201d Rodriguez and Marc Anthony Salvat \u2014 vying for the post.<\/p>\n

Tundidor, who received 21% of the vote, placed second in the contest, followed by Garcia-Roves, who had 19%.<\/p>\n

Hialeah\u2019s election this year came amid rising concerns over the cost of living, maintenance of public infrastructure and the city\u2019s bookkeeping.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the priorities of nearly every candidate on the\u00a0ballot<\/a>\u00a0overlapped.<\/p>\n

At a\u00a0televised debate<\/a>\u00a0last month, the candidates clashed over promises of tax cuts and rebates as the city faces a fiscal crisis, as finance officials called it.<\/p>\n

Garcia-Roves and Tundidor defended a recently approved $200 homeowner rebate that drained $6.4 million from city coffers and delayed 18 public projects. Both pledged continued relief \u201cas long as the city can afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calvo blasted the rebates and tax-cut talk, warning Hialeah \u201cdoesn\u2019t print money\u201d and that city taxpayers inevitably pay.<\/p>\n

Salvat and Rodriguez, meanwhile, echoed calls for affordability but offered few details on how to fund their alternative proposals.<\/p>\n

Calvo, 27, made history in 2021 as the youngest person ever elected to the City Council. He previously worked as a legislative aide to Hialeah Gardens Sen.\u00a0Bryan \u00c1vila.<\/p>\n

As a Council member, Calvo frequently butted heads with Bovo, whom he\u00a0sued in 2023<\/a>, alleging that Bovo was hampering his ability to investigate problems with the city\u2019s emergency call center.<\/p>\n

A Miami-Dade court subsequently\u00a0tossed the complaint<\/a>, and the Council voted 6-1 for a resolution condemning Calvo\u2019s suit.<\/p>\n

Calvo, who resigned from office last year\u00a0after an\u00a0unsuccessful run<\/a>\u00a0for Miami-Dade Tax Collector, told the\u00a0Miami Herald<\/a>\u00a0he was running to \u201cbring real change\u201d to City Hall by\u00a0cutting government waste, reducing water bills, lowering taxes and fighting corruption.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bryan Calvo. Image via Bryan Calvo.<\/p>\n

Garcia-Roves, 43, became Mayor in April, when her peers chose her to serve in the role for a short time after former Mayor Esteban \u201cSteve\u201d Bovo\u2019s resigned to take a federal lobbying job.<\/p>\n

She was first elected to the Council in 2019 as part of then-Mayor\u00a0Carlos Hernandez\u2019s slate. Four years later, she won re-election unopposed.<\/p>\n

This cycle, Garcia-Roves ran on a promise to stop tax increases, expand senior services, improve city parks, help small businesses grow, strengthen public safety, secure state and federal infrastructure funding, lower utility costs and build more affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jackie Garcia Roves. Image via Hialeah.<\/p>\n

Tundidor, 35, was also elected in 2019 despite not being on the ex-Mayor\u2019s list of preferred candidates. And he, too, was elected without opposition four years later.<\/p>\n

Before winning a local office, he worked as an aide to former state Senator and current Miami-Dade Commissioner\u00a0Ren\u00e9 Garc\u00eda, who\u00a0briefly flirted<\/a>\u00a0with a run for Hialeah Mayor early this year.<\/p>\n

During his time on the dais, Tundidor distinguished himself as a\u00a0levelheaded<\/a>, policy-focused official. He ran this year on a platform that prioritized reducing government waste, lowering property taxes, repealing \u201cburdensome\u201d regulations, supporting small businesses and increasing police presence.<\/p>\n

He also promised to block overdevelopment, expand senior services and prevent the illegal housing of recreational vehicles in residential communities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jesus Tundidor. Image via Hialeah.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, 79, said he wants to attract more business to the city, create educational opportunities for residents, crack down on crime and improve government transparency.<\/p>\n

Salvat, a 32-year-old real estate entrepreneur, told the Herald that because he\u2019s not a politician, he owes no \u201cpolitical favors\u201d and is beholden only to the people.<\/p>\n

If elected, he said, he\u2019d fight to lower taxes and water bills, improve safety and end the city\u2019s \u201cmismanagement of funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvat is the race\u2019s lone candidate without party affiliation. The rest are Republicans.<\/p>\n

Hialeah\u2019s elections are technically nonpartisan, though party politics can influence races. Unless otherwise noted, every candidate running is a Republican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little over six months after Jackie Garcia-Roves made history as Hialeah\u2019s first woman Mayor, voters in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[23555,23556,15188,3675,225,227,18016,226,18017,15197,18019],"class_list":{"0":"post-33588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-bernardino-benny-rodriguez","9":"tag-bernardino-rodriguez","10":"tag-bryan-calvo","11":"tag-election-2025","12":"tag-hialeah","13":"tag-hialeah-headlines","14":"tag-hialeah-mayor","15":"tag-hialeah-news","16":"tag-jackie-garcia-roves","17":"tag-jesus-tundidor","18":"tag-marc-anthony-salvat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33588","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=33588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}