In the municipal elections held on Tuesday, Miramar, Florida’s Jamaican American mayor Wayne Messam easily won reelection with 90.6% of the vote versus Rudy Theophin’s 9.4%.
Following the preliminary results at the conclusion of voting on Tuesday, Messam, who was born in the United States to Jamaican immigrants, received 3,215 votes to 333 for novice Theophin.
- Advertisement -
The 13th biggest city in Florida, Miramar has close to 150,000 residents, the majority of whom are Jamaicans. He is the city’s first black mayor.
Messam, the owner of Messam Construction, made a brief bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidacy in the United States (US) in 2020. He gave up when his effort was unsuccessful.
Messam, a frequent traveler to Jamaica, said in his bid for a third term as mayor that he had unfinished business to accomplish for the good of the city. He is credited with making the city a successful location for the corporate headquarters of several major businesses, including Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Comcast, and Spirit Airlines.
Hubert Messam, Messam’s father, was a cane cutter in South Florida’s Glades. Mayor Messam, who is now the Florida League of Mayors’ president-elect, is well-known across South Florida. He was elected to his first term as mayor in 2015 and his second in 2019.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Florida State University, where he also played on the national championship football team that year.
