[9] In January 2013 the Miami Herald wrote that in his first three years on the City Commission "Suarez has had mixed results passing policy."

[7] On January 15, 2013, Suarez officially announced his candidacy in a press conference he held outside of his personal resident in the Coral Gate neighborhood.

Despite his strong fundraising and support from prominent political players, Suarez was regarded to be the underdog due to Regaldo's popularity with likely voters.

"[7] For his campaign, Suarez hired experienced local political consultants, a media firm based in Washington, D.C., as well as a Virginia-based pollster.

[12] Suarez's candidacy garnered the support of fellow Miami city commissioners Marc Sarnon, Michelle Spence-Jones, and Willy Gort.

Suarez's father was accused of possibly attempting to influence a witness in the investigations when he reached out by email one of the voters for whom a ballot request had been illegally submitted.

These scandals led to both this staffer and the campaign manager (Steve Suarez) each pleading guilty to misdemeanors resulting in probation.

[3] Suarez played an important role in securing narrow city commission passage of approval for Miami Freedom Park and its related urban development project.

[29] In February 2019 Suarez wrote an article with former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon on how Miami is defending itself from the effects of climate change.

[3] In March 2024, Madison Darbyshire of the Financial Times credited Suarez with playing a central role in "Miami's repositioning as a glamorous global centre.

"[3] Suarez has advertised Miami as being an ascendant low-tax business haven akin to Switzerland, Monaco, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha.

[34] Suarez attracted national headlines by replying on Twitter to posts in which California-based technology company executives complained about their dissatisfaction with California's state government.

Instead, he hopes to fund the city's activities via the issuance and continued mining of a city-specific blockchain token called MiamiCoin – which has led to him being nicknamed "Mayor Ponzi Postalita" by documentary-maker and director Billy Corben.

[44] In 2021, after seeing the Las Vegas Loop constructed by Elon Musk's The Boring Company, Suarez raised the possibility of using tunneling to relieve congestion problems in Miami, proposing, "something that could potentially connect Brickell to downtown to the Grand Central station to Miami World Center to the Omni area to Edgewater, potentially to Wynwood.

[48] On March 4, 2020, Suarez announced plans to cancel the upcoming Ultra Music Festival, stating that the tourists attending would greatly enhance the likelihood of Miami having cases of COVID-19.

[49] On March 6, 2020, Suarez and the Miami municipal government responded to the outbreak, which by then had resulted in even more confirmed coronavirus cases in the state of Florida,[50] by cancelling the local Calle Ocho Festival as well.

[60] Suarez did not vote for Republican Donald Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 United States presidential elections; he wrote in Marco Rubio and Mike Pence instead.

[66] On September 28, 2023, an investigation was opened by the Florida Ethics Commission after reports surfaced that Suarez did not disclose travel "gifts" worth well over $100.

Records showed that Suarez, Location Ventures CEO Rishi Kapoor, and City Manager Art Noriega met to discuss a zoning hurdle for the development.

[71] Suarez has faced allegations of potential impropriety in relation to this $10,000 per month in compensation for consulting services, received from a property developer who does business in the city.

[3] On June 10, 2023, the Miami Herald noted that "special agents with the FBI's public corruption squad began questioning witnesses this week" on whether $10,000 monthly payments made to Suarez from London Ventures constituted bribery.

[74] Suarez spoke on Fox News Sunday on June 11, 2023, touting visits to early primary states, saying "when I take the message to people, they want to hear more."

Political scientists such as Sean Freeder of the University of North Florida publicly expressed doubts that he would be a viable contender, noting that he was likely to face two other Floridians: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

After the podcast concluded and news of the gaffe broke, Suarez told the media that he was confused by Hewitt's pronunciation of the term 'Uyghur' and is very familiar with the crisis.

[78] The gaffe was compared to 2016 presidential candidate Gary Johnson's infamous "What is Aleppo" comment amid the Syrian civil war.

[79][80] Running for president, he staked out positions on abortion and climate change that were to the left of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, another contender for the nomination.

The bot directs users to campaign videos based on the questions asked, and is capable of mocking other presidential candidates such as Ron DeSantis.

The program is one of a number of examples of the use of artificial intelligence in the 2024 election, with major presidential contenders DeSantis and Trump using text-to-image models in official campaign videos.

[98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105] According to an analyst for FiveThirtyEight, Suarez's "policies remain conservative (lowering taxes and keeping them low has been a focus of his administration, for example), but he takes a slightly more moderate stance on issues like climate change and immigration.

He supported the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act as originally signed, which prohibited some classroom instruction on LGBT issues from kindergarten through third grade.