A Homestead attorney — who’s now an assistant state attorney for the State Attorney’s Office in Monroe County — wants to bring her education and health care background to the Florida House seat up for election in November.
Republican Alexandria Suarez officially filed May 31, 2019 for District 120 state representative, which Rep. Holly Raschein terms out of at the end of the year. The mother of four started her career as a teacher at Glades Middle School before entering an eight-year career as a pharmaceutical representative, which took her to places throughout the district, from south Miami-Dade to Key West.
At age 45, Suarez stepped away from the pharmaceutical job and pursued a lifelong dream to become a lawyer. Passing the bar in 2016, she opened her own practice specializing in civil litigation and defense, family and immigrant law and fraud claims.
Just last week, Suarez started her new job handling misdemeanors and fish and wildlife violations out of the State Attorney’s Office in Marathon. She said she’ll work out of the Marathon office and will be living in the Upper Keys.
Suarez said it’s a switch of her day job as she goes from private to public practice. And she said it has nothing to do with the state office seat.
“I’m happy and excited,” she said. “I’ve been on the civil side, but I do have some experience on the criminal side being in health care. I handled fraud claims on the defense side, and I dealt with the State Attorney’s Offices in Miami-Dade and throughout the state.”
As for her state rep candidacy, Suarez said she wasn’t planning a career in politics. With Raschein exiting, Suarez said she’s got the background and skills to continue the work in Tallahassee.
“With Holly leaving the office, there are big shoes to fill. But I realized I have the feet to fill them. I’m new to politics, but I’m not new to hard work and success,” she said. “I’ve lived in the district for a long time. I haven’t physically been in the Keys. I’ve been in Homestead, but I’ve been in the Keys for work numerous times. My roots are here in the district.”
Educationally, Suarez stressed the importance of getting students back to the basics of what to think, not how. As a former educator within the Miami-Dade Public Schools, Suarez said it’s something she wants to implement across the board in schools.
“There was a lot of teaching them what to think, how to take a test and solve a problem and working their way through it,” she said. “Those are the best governing standards, focusing on math and history and getting rid of Common Core because it was not working.”
As for health care, Suarez said many can’t afford the hundreds of dollars a month for insurance. A pharmaceutical specialist and an attorney who’s practiced in health law, Suarez said she understands the mechanics behind it all.
“There are a lot of challenges in trying to improve health care,” she said. “Many can’t afford the cost of medications and health insurance, and we’re paying a lot more for a lot less,” she said. “I want to help to ensure we improve the situation.”
Overall, Suarez said she understands the issues in the sprawling district, from farming and a development frenzy in south Miami-Dade to preservation and the heavy tourist flow in the Keys.
“Every area is unique. North of the 7-Mile Bridge is very different than south. In Key West, they care about the historical preservation and the pride in being a Conch,” she said. “You go to Islamorada, there’s a lot of recreation and people coming down, which creates bumper-to-bumper traffic.”
Despite the differences, Suarez said both regions, from the islands to the mainland, rely on one another, from Homestead’s fresh produce to evacuating people out of the Keys.
“You can’t just stay in a bubble. That’s what sets me apart,” she said. “You need to look at the whole district, and Miami-Dade is a part of that equation. The Keys relies on the mainland to get out, and now you have this man- date that you have to get out within 24 hours. Well, we’re not going anywhere if Homestead continues with its mass development.”
Suarez is joined in the state representative race by Republicans Jim Mooney, Islamorada councilman, and Rhonda Rebman Lopez, business owner and North Key Largo resident. Clint Barras, vice president of Two Oceans Digital in Key West, is the only candidate who’s thrown his name into the race on the Democratic side.
