- The Republic member and Miami Mayor, Francis Suarez has filed a nomination for the 2024 presidential elections
- For the crypto community, it seems like good news as he has supported digital assets previously through some campaigns
The Republicans seem to be going all-out for crypto. They have voiced concerns about SEC’s hostile attitude towards exchanges and have also prepared a draft for regulating crypto. And now Francis Suarez, a Republic member and an avid supporter of crypto is gearing up to run for presidential elections in 2024.
Besides being a parliamentarian, Suarez is already the mayor of Miami. As per the documents released by the US Federal Election Commission, he has already filed the paperwork. Reportedly, Suarez will address the public at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on June 16. On the same occasion, he is expected to announce his candidature.
A Glimpse into the political career of Francis Suarez
Before entering politics, Francis Xavier Suarez worked as a lawyer and as Commissioner for District for Miami. He was elected as the Mayor of Miami for the first time in 2017. Being the 43rd Mayor of the city, he got re-elected in 2021. Being the top administrative official, Suarez has spearheaded some distinctive campaigns for the city.
He introduced a $400 million municipal bond initiative to make housing affordable and to prevent rising sea levels. He is also a holder of other positions in different government-run bodies. He is a vice chairman of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) and the second vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
On the crypto front, he has promoted many campaigns and initiatives. In 2021, he proposed the rollout of MiamiCoin, a token for collecting funds that would be invested in welfare work. He also advocated paying taxes in Bitcoin and became the first politician to take a salary in crypto.
Bouquets & brickbats
The political career of Surez is not devoid of controversies. A real estate development company Location Ventures accused him of taking $170,000 to push their development project. Also, after the failure of MiamiCoin, he was called “Mayor Ponzi Pstalita” by filmmaker Billy Corben. His father, Xavier Suarez was also a mayor and was removed from the office for the charges of voter fraud. Allegedly, Francis did some fake signatures to help his father.
On the flip side, Suarez was included in the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list of Fortune Magazine in 2021. He received over 78% votes in the first ballot fighting the mayoral election the same year. Raising his voice for climate change, he wrote an article with the former secretary-general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. In 2019, he gave an interview with Miami Herald and told that the city has benefitted from his leadership.
According to many crypto users, he is the perfect Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential elections. Based on his aspirations related to the crypto field, he’s a promising person in the decentralized domain. And people are quite confident that he’ll be able to push forward the blockchain drive in the United States. The crypto users are rooting for him as he seems to have a vision with the technology.
Conclusion
Francis Suarez is a reliable candidate for those who want a crypto-friendly president. However, we’ll have to see if this nomination bears fruit to the expectations of the people. It seems that he could gain the support of the people of Miami easily. But we can say the same for the rest of the country? But, how other nominations gain traction among the voters is a thing only time can tell.