Raquel Regalado

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Raquel Regalado

Nonpartisan

Miami-Dade County Commission District 7

Tenure

2020 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

4

Predecessor

Xavier Suarez

Prior offices

Miami-Dade County Public Schools school board District 6

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Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Florida International University

Law

St. Thomas University

Personal

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

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Personal website

Personal YouTube

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Raquel Regalado is a member of the Miami-Dade County Commission in Florida, representing District 7. Regalado assumed office on November 17, 2020. Regalado's current term ends on November 21, 2028.

Regalado ran for re-election to the Miami-Dade County Commission to represent District 7 in Florida. Regalado won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.

Regalado earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Florida International University. She later received a J.D. from St. Thomas University. Regalado practiced law from 2001 to 2012.

Elections

2024

See also: Municipal elections in Miami-Dade County, Florida (2024)

General election

General election for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7

Incumbent Raquel Regalado defeated Cindy Lerner in the general election for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Raquel Regalado (Nonpartisan)	56.6	57,335
	Submit photo	Cindy Lerner (Nonpartisan)	43.4	43,960

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 101,295
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7

Incumbent Raquel Regalado and Cindy Lerner defeated Richard Praschnik in the primary for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 on August 20, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Raquel Regalado (Nonpartisan)	48.8	16,559
✔	Submit photo	Cindy Lerner (Nonpartisan)	41.8	14,189
		Richard Praschnik (Nonpartisan)	9.4	3,206

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 33,954
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Regalado in this election.

2020

Miami-Dade County Commission election

See also: Municipal elections in Miami-Dade County, Florida (2020)

General election

General election for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7

Raquel Regalado defeated Cindy Lerner in the general election for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Raquel Regalado (Nonpartisan)	50.6	52,848
	Submit photo	Cindy Lerner (Nonpartisan)	49.4	51,547

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 104,395
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7

Cindy Lerner and Raquel Regalado defeated Michael Rosenberg and Rafael Suarez in the primary for Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 on August 18, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Cindy Lerner (Nonpartisan)	39.7	18,479
✔		Raquel Regalado (Nonpartisan)	36.6	17,010
	Submit photo	Michael Rosenberg (Nonpartisan)	13.5	6,282
	Submit photo	Rafael Suarez (Nonpartisan)	10.2	4,737

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 46,508
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

State Senate election

See also: Florida State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Florida State Senate District 37

Ileana Garcia defeated incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez in the general election for Florida State Senate District 37 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ileana Garcia (R)	48.5	104,630
		Jose Javier Rodriguez (D)	48.5	104,598
		Alex Rodriguez (No Party Affiliation)	3.0	6,382

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 215,610
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez advanced from the Democratic primary for Florida State Senate District 37.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Michael Hepburn (D)

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Ileana Garcia advanced from the Republican primary for Florida State Senate District 37.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Erik Fresen (R)
• Raquel Regalado (R)

2018

See also: Florida's 27th Congressional District election, 2018

Regalado sought election to the 27th Congressional District of Florida in 2018. She dropped out of the race in November 2017.

2016

See also: Municipal elections in Miami-Dade County, Florida (2016)

Miami-Dade County Mayor, General Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Carlos Gimenez Incumbent	55.83%	475,547
Raquel Regalado	44.17%	376,249
Total Votes		851,796
Source: Miami-Dade County Elections, "November 8, 2016 General Election," accessed November 8, 2016

Miami-Dade County Mayor, Primary Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Carlos Gimenez Incumbent	47.61%	121,891
Raquel Regalado	32.01%	81,952
Frederick Bryant	8.87%	22,710
Alfred Santamaria	8.70%	22,277
Farid Khavari	1.16%	2,967
B.J. Chiszar	1.04%	2,669
Miguel Eizmendiz	0.60%	1,546
Total Votes		256,012
Source: Miami-Dade County Elections, "August 30, 2016 Primary Election," accessed September 8, 2016

2014

See also: Miami-Dade County Public Schools elections (2014)

The August 26, 2014 general election in Miami-Dade County featured four seats up for election. District 4 incumbent Perla Tabares Hantman defeated challenger Duysevi "Sevi" Miyar in the general election. Marta Perez won re-election to the District 8 seat against newcomer Lawrence "Larry" Orihuela. Incumbents Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall and Raquel A. Regalado won re-election without opposition in Districts 2 and 6, respectively.

Funding

Regalado reported $116,560.50 in contributions and loans and $69,076.23 in expenditures to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections, as of July 21, 2014.

Endorsements

Regalado received no official endorsements in the election.

2010

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, District 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Raquel Regalado	57%	14,714
	Nonpartisan	Eduardo-Zayas Bazan	18.4%	4,737
	Nonpartisan	Alex Diaz	12.4%	3,200
	Nonpartisan	Kitchka Petrova	7.4%	1,920
	Nonpartisan	Maria Peiro	4.8%	1,237
Total Votes				25,808
Source: Miami-Dade County Elections, "August 24, 2010 Primary Election," September 9, 2010

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Raquel Regalado did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Raquel Regalado did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2016

Regalado's campaign website included the following themes:

“ Economic Development & Job Creation Miami-Dade needs a mayor that will have a presence in Tallahassee and Washington, instead of sending staff or a lobbyist. We need a mayor that has the relationships needed to get things done and to attract new industries to Miami-Dade. As an attorney and a school board member, I have successfully lobbied in Tallahassee and Washington for our school system. As Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I will take Miami-Dade County’s agenda to Tallahassee and Washington and advocate for what is important for our residents from economic incentives to infrastructure investments. Here at home, we must also reorganize and restructure the Beacon Council so that it does what it was created to do, which is to assist local, small businesses and create zones of economic empowerment—not just give out awards. One of the many reasons that the current administration’s economic incentives have been such a disaster is because Carlos Gimenez fails to understand the importance of education, not only in training and retooling of our workforce, but also the role of education in attracting new industries. We need to look beyond temporary constructions jobs and offer developers and corporations the skilled work force that they need to succeed in Miami-Dade. Let’s put elevating quality of life back in the economic development equation. Let’s demand true economic development, one that ensures that our tax dollars benefit our residents instead of tourists and developers. Public Transit Every resident of Miami-Dade County agrees on one point — that the traffic and gridlock in our county is unbearable. But before we get to my solutions we need to be honest about three things: this traffic and transit crisis didn’t happen overnight, we cannot fix the current problem without tackling the broken promises and lies that lead to this gridlock, and the cost of our traffic crisis is time. The current mayor loves to blame the increasing traffic woes on Miami-Dade’s car culture, but the reality is that this problem was created by his lack of leadership, misuse of transit funds and failure to insist on transit solutions when approving density changes. For years, Gimenez has been using the People’s Transportation Plan half-penny tax funds to fill operating gaps in transit department instead of investing in the transportation infrastructure that voters approved that tax for. He says that there is no federal money for transit infrastructure, but fails to inform residents that Miami-Dade County has not applied for available federal funding in his five years in the mayor’s office. He has spent millions on articulated buses, but failed to synchronize our lights. And he has championed large scale development near residential areas, while he refused to demand that said projects invest in and expand public transit options. Well, I’ve been at the school board roughly the same amount of time that Gimenez has been mayor of Miami-Dade County, and in my first term as a School Board member, I proposed and championed a five-year plan to replace old and inefficient school buses. At the time the economy was in a tail spin and the state of Florida was threatening to eliminate transit funding. Our old buses were breaking down regularly and costing us a small fortune, so we sold them, replaced them with energy efficient buses that exceed the state’s safety requirements, reorganized routes and saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational and maintenance costs; proving that hard economic times are not an excuse for inaction but an opportunity to innovate. Because your time should be spent with your loved ones, not in gridlock. Public Safety There is a direct connection between the recent shootings that have claimed dozens of young lives in our community, and the drastic cuts to the Miami-Dade County Police Department made by the current mayor. As part of his 2014 ‘restructuring’ Carlos Gimenez eliminated special units like the Gang Investigation Unit, and placed some of those officers in homicide and narcotics. Today, he deflects by claiming that disbanding the unit wasn’t his idea, but the reality is that it could not have been done without his input or approval. Our children’s safety has always been and will remain my priority. This is why on my first day in office as Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I will restore the Gang Investigation Unit because it is a vital cross-jurisdictional division that needs to work with municipalities to reduce and prevent violent crime. As your Mayor, I will work to proactively stop gang violence, instead of just reacting to it. You will never hear me say that it is not my problem, because the safety of the residents of Miami-Dade County is and will always be my priority. But restoring specialty units is only the first step in making Miami-Dade County safe again. As your Mayor, I will work with our police department and police union to immediately hire more police officers so that we can investigate and close cases — not just fill out reports for insurance claims. Together we will ensure that our officers have the vehicles and equipment that they require to get the job done. Currently, the Miami-Dade County Police Department is 475 officers short, not including the dozens of seasoned officers that are retiring in the coming months. And yet the lack of adequate police force is not our only problem. Miami-Dade County also has a shortage of firefighters, as many are leaving for opportunities elsewhere. And while there will be three graduating classes this year, we are still not caught up in terms of demand. In the last nine years, 911 rescue-related calls have seen an increase of more than 10 percent. As a mother and as your Mayor, I will insure that Miami-Dade County government’s number one priority is the safety of our residents. I will do so without raising taxes but rather by ensuring that government spending is focused on services to residents – not on corporate welfare and private bailouts. Together we will forge a county budget that puts residents first. ” —Raquel Regalado (2016),

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