Philip Stoddard, a former five-time Mayor of South Miami, just became the 10th political figure from South Florida to get behind Democrat Robin Peguero’s campaign for Florida’s 27th Congressional District.
He cited Peguero’s experience as a prosecutor and congressional standout features among the candidates running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar.
Stoddard said in a statement that Peguero “will hit the ground running at a moment when we have no time to lose in rebuilding our democracy.”
Stoddard, a biology professor, served as Mayor from 2010 to 2020. His elected tenure in South Miami was marked by renewable energy advancements and affordable housing initiatives.
In 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration appointed him to the Governance Coordinating Committee of the National Ocean Council, where he developed national policy to address sea level rise. The year after, POLITICO Magazine named him among its top 50 “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics.”
Peguero is a former homicide prosecutor born to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador. His other government bona fides include a stint as an investigator for the congressional Jan. 6 Committee and work as a Chief of Staff to Democratic U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland.
Today, he works as a novelist and professor at St. Thomas University College of Law.
The nod from Stoddard adds to others from Miami-Dade School Board member and former state Rep. Joe Geller, Key Biscayne Council member Franklin Caplan, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, Cutler Bay Council member B.J. Duncan, former Congresswoman and Cabinet Secretary Donna Shalala, former state Reps. Annie Betancourt and J.C. Planas, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson and ex-Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey.
The political arms of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have also endorsed Peguero, who faces two other Democrats — accountant Alexander Fornino and entrepreneur Richard Lamondin — in the August 2026 Primary.
CD 27, one of three Florida districts that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has highlighted as “in play,” covers Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated areas.
Salazar, who unseated Shalala, has represented the district since January 2021.
