Politics
4 Democrats compete in Primary that will decide who takes open HD 109 seat
Former state Rep. James Bush III, Opa-lockaMayor John Taylor, union leader Satin Fye and cultural entrepreneur Cutberth “Broadway” Harewood are competing in a Democratic Primary for House District 109.
No Republican qualified in the district, meaning the seat itself is up for grabs Aug. 18, not just the right to vie for it in November.
For two straight cycles, the seat has been in the hands of Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt, who supplanted Bush in 2022 and is now seeking the Senate District 34 seat that Sen. Shevrin Jones is vacating to run for Congress.
HD 109 covers Miami Gardens, Opa-locka, Liberty City, West Little River and the unincorporated Brownsville, Gladeview and Pinewood neighborhoods in north Miami-Dade County.
Bush is the only candidate to have held the seat, serving three separate stints between 1992 and 2022. Gantt beat him again in 2024.
He told Florida Politics this month that his priorities, if elected, are public education, affordable housing, healthcare access and small business support, and that he’d file a bill to add more workforce housing.
Bush’s loss four years ago was preceded by notable discord with his party. He was the lone Democrat to vote for both Florida’s 15-week abortion ban — now reduced to six weeks — and the Parental Rights in Education law that critics called “Don’t Say Gay.”
In 2021, he was the only Democrat to back withdrawing Florida workplaces from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversight.
Last year, he sued Gantt and three organizations for defamation over campaign ads, seeking more than $1 million.
Bush raised $41,000 through his campaign account and an eponymous political committee he opened in June. The $29,000 the PC collected came exclusively from the Florida branch of the American Federation of Children, whose funding overwhelmingly comes from charter school interests.
Taylor, 37, has served as Opa-locka Mayor since 2022, after winning a City Commission seat in 2020 and serving a year as Vice Mayor. A lifelong resident of the city and a state health inspector for more than seven years, he gave up a re-election bid to run for the House.
His tenure coincided with a turnaround for a city long under state financial oversight: multiple consecutive clean audits, a lowered millage rate, reduced debt and a new police station.
His campaign website lists his priorities as lowering costs, expanding affordable housing, supporting small businesses, strengthening public safety and broadening access to social services and healthcare.
He told the Miami Herald that the state’s Live Local Act, which proponents say will help expand Florida’s affordable housing inventory by granting developers broad new allowances, went too far in preempting local governments.
Gantt endorsed him, as did the Florida Medical Association PAC and the Herald editorial board.
He leads the field in fundraising — more than $56,000 collected through his campaign account, plus additional support from a political committee controlled by influential consultant Christian Ulvert.
Taylor’s family has a complicated history in Opa-locka politics. His mother, Myra Taylor, previously served as Mayor and was once suspended after an indictment. She and Taylor’s father pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in 2005. His father, half-brother and aunt were also arrested in 2012 on campaign finance charges tied to her 2010 campaign.
Fye, who turns 40 later this month, is a flight attendant and union delegate. Her campaign website frames her candidacy around lived experience rather than credentials, describing her as a union leader raising two sons “while navigating the same rising costs facing working families.”
Her platform centers on three concerns she says she hears repeatedly: rising costs of living; the need for a better route to homeownership, business ownership and savings; and that a child’s neighborhood shouldn’t determine how far they can go.
She told The Miami Times she’s focused on affordability, public schools, healthcare and food access, and flagged OSHA complaints at a district Amazon facility and a planned AI data center in West Little River.
She’s raised the least in the field, collecting less than $6,000 through almost 70 outside donations, plus $1,800 in self-loans that are refundable if unspent.
Harewood, 63, founded Liberty City’s Broadway Art District and the 305 Hip Hop Museum. Locals affectionately call him the “Mayor of Liberty City.”
He told The Miami Times his priorities are public education, stopping residential displacement, supporting small businesses and safety.
He also opposes AI data centers over their potential effect on utility bills and, according to the Herald, backs the Live Local Act.
Harewood raised close to $16,000 through July 31. Nearly two-thirds of it — $10,000 — came from his bank account, but he did not report the gains as self-loans.
Early voting is underway.
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