Homestead reelects councilwoman, sends mayoral candidates to November runoff election

Homestead residents elected a new commissioner Tuesday night and sent two mayoral candidates to a Nov. 2 runoff election after a primary contest in which less than 8% of eligible voters participated.

Because neither current Mayor Steven Losner nor former Councilman Elvis Maldonado netted more than half the vote, the two Homestead natives will face off again next month. Losner earned about 47% of the vote. Maldonado earned 35.6%.

A third candidate, former Mayor Jeffrey Porter, was eliminated.

Losner, 60, served on the City Council from 2001 to 2007. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2011 before he ran in 2019 and won. The lawyer’s family has century-long roots in Homestead, and he has promised to bring balance to development.

He blamed the runoff election on Porter, who he says was planted to split votes and force another month of campaigning.

“Porter was not a legitimate candidate,” he told the Miami Herald Tuesday. “If not for him, I would have been reelected tonight. For whatever reason, that old guard wants me gone. We just have to go out and earn his votes.”

Losner said the “old guard” refers to city employees and developers who disagree with Losner’s approach to how the city is run.

“It’s the self-serving stuff that has always held Homestead back,” he said.

Porter, who earned 17% of the vote, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Maldonado, 48, also has roots in Homestead, where he grew up playing baseball with his neighbors. The software engineer was a city commissioner for a decade before he resigned to run for county commission last year. Maldonado was born in Connecticut to Colombian parents, and moved to Homestead as a young child.

“We are still in this race, it’s not over,” he told the Herald. “We restart and tomorrow is a new day ... I think it’s the community saying, you got to earn this one. Nothing is given.”

Porter, 62, was first elected as mayor in 2013 and resigned in 2018 to run unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Florida agriculture commissioner. Porter ran for mayor again in 2019, losing to Losner.

Just 2,810 out of more than 35,000 eligible voters participated in the election, which has at times centered around Homestead’s rapid expansion, and whether to capitalize on that growth or reject it.

In the race for the Homestead City Council’s Seat Five, incumbent Erica Ávila, 37, will keep her seat, to which she was appointed in 2020 to fill a vacancy. She won 57% of the vote, beating Maycol Enriquez and Planning and Zoning Board Vice Chairman Bradley Compton, 42, to represent the district, which includes Homestead’s Waterstone and Malibu Bay communities.

Ávila said the focus of her next term will be supporting small businesses by expediting applications in the city’s Development Services department, and rezoning the downtown area to allow for more mixed-use and residential buildings.

“We can do more to drive the development that we want to see in those areas to help support those small businesses which are suffering from COVID,” she said.

In the race for Homestead’s Seat One position, which represents the city’s northwest section, former Councilman Julio Guzman was automatically elected last month when he was the only candidate to make the ballot.

Councilwoman Jenifer Bailey drew a challenge for her Seat Four position from Valencia “Val” Brown, which will be decided during the Nov. 2 runoff election.

The deadline to register to vote in time to participate in the runoff election has passed, but the deadline to request a mail ballot is Oct. 23.