Two of the nation’s 100 largest cities by population, Hialeah and Miami, both held nonpartisan elections on November 19 after previously holding elections two weeks earlier on November 5, 2019.
In Hialeah, November 5 was the primary election and November 19 was the general election. Four city council seats were up for election. The Group I and Group IV seats were both won outright in the primary by candidates who received more than 50% of the vote. The Group II and Group III seats, however, advanced to the general since no individual candidate met that threshold. The top two vote recipients in each primary advanced to the general election; Jesus Tundidor and Jackie Garcia-Roves ultimately won the Group II and Group III seats, respectively. None of the four seats were won by an incumbent; Lourdes Lozano in Group I was the only incumbent to file for re-election, but she lost in the primary. The council has seven members. Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida and the 88th-largest city in the U.S. by population.
In Miami, November 5 was the general election and November 19 was the general runoff. Three board of commissioners seats were up for election in 2019. In District 1, seven candidates competed in an open-seat race. The top two vote recipients in the general election, Miguel Angel Gabela and Alex Diaz de la Portilla, both advanced to the runoff, which de la Portilla won. The District 1 incumbent, Wifredo Gort, was unable to run for re-election due to term limits. The District 2 seat was won outright in the general election by incumbent Ken Russell. Russell faced four challengers. In District 4, incumbent Manuel Reyes ran unopposed and won re-election by default.
The board of commissioners has five members. Miami is the second-largest city in Florida and the 44th-largest city in the U.S. by population.
Orlando is the state’s last big city scheduled to have an election in 2019. Although the mayor’s office and two city council seats were won outright in the November 5 general election by their incumbent officeholders, the District 6 seat on the city council advanced to an open-seat runoff election. Bakari Burns and Gary Siplin, the top two vote recipients in the general election, both advanced to the runoff election scheduled for December 3, 2019. The incumbent, Samuel Ings, ran unsuccessfully for mayor rather than for re-election to the council. The council has seven members. Orlando is the fourth-largest city in Florida and the 76th-largest city in the U.S. by population.