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The Cuban influencer Alexander Otaola acknowledged this Wednesday the failure of his campaign to recall the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine-Cava, admitting in a press release that they did not manage to gather the necessary signatures to call for a special recall election.
"We did not obtain the required number of signatures to call the special election, so the recall effort was unsuccessful," wrote the Cuban-American presenter and activist in the document issued one day before the deadline set for May 14, 2026.
The process, known as "Recall Cava," required collecting 65,681 valid signatures —equivalent to 4% of the 1,642,010 registered voters in the county— within a period of 120 days.
In mid-April, organizer Mercy Pérez claimed to have collected about 50,000 signatures, a figure that local analysts publicly challenged.
In his statement, Otaola pointed directly at the Republican Party as responsible for the failure: "The Republican Party, with the exception of the Young Republicans organization, did not provide any support. Kevin Cooper never responded. Had they offered their support, we would have succeeded."
Despite the outcome, Otaola maintained the message that inspired the initiative: "We call on the people of Miami to demand accountability for public funds and to prevent the displacement of communities for the benefit of developers' interests."
The recall process had a rocky start. In December 2025, the initial request was rejected by the Miami-Dade Clerk's Office due to formatting and typographical errors in the petition. After being corrected, it was approved by the Clerk of the Court and County Comptroller, with authorization from election official Juan Fernández-Barquín.
The "Recall Cava" committee also faced administrative issues during the process, including failing to meet the financing report deadline for the first quarter of 2026, which resulted in a "failure to file" letter from the Office of the Election Supervisor.
Levine Cava, for her part, described the initiative at all times as "a political circus" and "frivolous and politically motivated."
This new setback adds to the electoral defeat of Otaola in August 2024, when he received only 12% of the votes in the Miami-Dade mayoral elections, finishing in third place far behind Levine Cava, who won with over 58% of the votes and avoided a runoff.
After that defeat, Otaola rejected the results and demanded a vote-by-vote recount, a request that the county's Department of Elections denied due to not meeting the legal threshold of half a percentage point required to activate that mechanism.
Otaola ended his statement with a message of gratitude to those who supported him: "We sincerely thank the volunteers, businesses, and all the individuals who resisted pressure and stood by our side throughout this process."
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