MIAMI — Laura Anderson, a Socialist Workers Party member, is among the 13 candidates running in the nonpartisan election for Miami mayor on Nov. 4.
Anderson said she admires Fidel Castro and has been to Cuba three times, and saw how workers organized to meet the needs of the people.
“He was someone who pointed to women as some of the best leaders before the revolution, he explained the role of Jew hatred, he was someone who understood the African freedom struggle,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who was born in Illinois, lives in Miami’s Model City neighborhood and works for CSX Transportation as a freight railroad conductor.
“Working people need a voice. Too many promises with Democrats, Republicans -- all capitalist parties -- have people been waiting for promises. We can’t wait any more,” Anderson. “We need to break from the capitalist politicians and organize all workers.”
Anderson is also an active member of a Hialeah-based local branch of The International Association of Sheet Metal, Aerospace, Rail, and Transportation Workers, a union founded in 2011.
“Organizing all workers was the most effective way to advance working people’s interests, to push back attacks on our cost of living ... unsafe conditions on the job, and to fight for things we need,” Anderson said.
Despite several opportunities to discuss strategies to address the challenges Miami residents face, Anderson did not present any ideas. Instead, she said the city had to have its own foreign policy.
Related document: Affidavit of candidate (.PDF)
OTHER MAYORAL CANDIDATES
The other candidates in the nonpartisan race are Alex Díaz de la Portilla, Alyssa Crocker, Christian E. Cevallos, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, Elijah John Bowdre, Emilio González, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, June Savage, Kenneth DeSantis, Ken Russell, Michael A. Hepburn, and Xavier L. Suarez.
Name recognition: In September, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is not related to Kenneth DeSantis, endorsed González, a retired U.S. Army Colonel and fellow Republican.
Suarez, who served as Miami mayor from 1985 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1998, is the father of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Carollo, a former Metro Dade police officer, served as a city commissioner, a city vice mayor, and two terms as Miami mayor from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2001.
Legal trouble: De La Portilla is a former Miami commissioner who served from 2020 to 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him over a corruption case that prosecutors later dropped.
Carollo, who lives near Little Havana, has an arrest record. In 2001, police officers arrested him for domestic violence, and prosecutors dropped the case after he agreed to attend anger management classes.
Later in 2023, a federal jury in civil court sided with two businessmen who won $63.5 million in damages against Carollo for “weaponizing” city employees to violate their rights after they supported one of his political opponents.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
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