Sunny Isles Beach Vice Mayor withdraws endorsement of Fabián Basabe

Sunny Isles Beach Vice Mayor Jeniffer Viscarra became the latest elected official to pull her endorsement of Rep. Fabián Basabe, whom a jury found liable for sexual harassment, battery and defamation this month.

“I rescind my endorsement,” she told Florida Politics by email.

Viscarra, who has no party affiliation, endorsed Basabe, a Miami Beach Republican, in March alongside Sunny Isles Beach Commissioner Alex Lama.

Lama, a Republican, rescinded his support last week, saying he was “disgusted” by Basabe’s behavior.

Others who have pulled their support include Surfside Commissioner Ruben Coto and Bal Harbour Council Member Buzzy Sklar, both Republicans, and Kissimmee Democratic Rep. Jose Alvarez.

Basabe was ordered July 15 to pay $450,000 to former aide Nicolas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth, who for years have accused Basabe of slapping Frevola’s face and buttocks, groping and attempting to kiss Cutbirth, making repeated unwelcome sexual comments toward both, and defaming Frevola and his mother in a social media post.

Basabe has continued to deny any wrongdoing.

Frevola and Cutbirth have also filed a separate lawsuit against the House, which they accuse of insufficiently investigating their claims against Basabe. That lawsuit remains pending. The two 2023 investigations by the House — one into the face-slapping incident, the other into the accusations of sexual impropriety — resulted in an “inconclusive” finding and “no evidence” of wrongdoing, respectively.

Florida Politics has contacted every other current and former elected official who has endorsed or expressed official support for Basabe to ask whether their support still stands after the court verdict.

Two Democrats are running to unseat Basabe in House District 106, which covers a coastal strip of Miami-Dade between Miami Beach and Aventura: former Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Báez-Geller and lawyer Ashley Litwin Diego, a first-time candidate.

Both have significantly outraised Basabe this cycle, according to the most recent campaign finance reporting, though Basabe has enjoyed about $140,000 in in-kind aid, mostly from the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee for phone banking and consulting expenses.

HD 106 is considered to be among Florida’s most flippable districts, having gone to President Donald Trump by 9 percentage points in 2024 and to former President Joe Biden four years earlier by 10 points, according to MCI Maps.

Basabe, a former reality TV personality and socialite, defeated former Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Jordan Leonard in 2022 by less than a percentage point to succeed term-limited Democratic Rep. Joe Geller — who has since replaced Báez-Geller, no relation, on the Miami-Dade School Board — in HD 106.

He won re-election by a 4-point margin two years later.

The Primary is Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.