Miami mayor has not ruled out a 2024 White House bid, will make decision ‘soon’

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) on Thursday said he hasn’t ruled out a 2024 White House bid and said he’ll make a decision “soon” about whether to get in the GOP race. 

“I definitely have not ruled it out. I am strongly considering it,” Suarez said of a presidential run to NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“I need to make a decision soon because … the debates are coming up quick, on August 20th. And so I think, for someone like me who … has ascended quickly but is still relatively unknown nationally, you have to be on the debate stage to sell your story,” Suarez said. 

If Suarez enters the race, he’d join former President Trump, who is leading a handful of other current candidates in the polls. The Miami mayor could also potentially face opposition from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who hasn’t yet launched an official bid but who has long been a rumored possible candidate. Reports suggest DeSantis will jump into the GOP primary next week.

Asked whether he’d accept a hypothetical offer to be Trump’s running mate if the former president gets the GOP nomination, Suarez said “it’s early” at this point.

“I haven’t even decided whether or not I’m gonna run for president. If I decide to run for president, that’s what I will be doing. I will be, you know, obviously fighting to be the nominee of the Republican Party. And so those kinds of questions will be decided later on,” he said.