Bruno Arthur Barreiro (born December 14, 1965) is a Republican politician from

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. He served on the Miami-Dade County Commission from 1998 to 2018, representing part of

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

and the

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

neighborhoods of

Brickell Brickell ( ) is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, historically referenced at times as "Southside" (being south of the Miami River), located directly east of Interstate 95, south of the Miami River (Florida), Miami River, and north of Coconut Gr ...

Little Havana Little Havana () is a Neighborhoods in Miami, neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban exiles, as well as many immigrants from Central and South America, Little Havana is named after Havana, the Capital (political), ...

Coral Way Coral Way is a neighborhood within Miami, Florida that is defined by Coral Way (street), Coral Way, a road established by Coral Gables, Florida, Coral Gables founder George E. Merrick during the Florida land boom of the 1920s, 1920s. It is loca ...

, and

West Flagler West Flagler (formerly West Little Havana) is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States, bisected by Flagler Street. It is roughly located north of the Tamiami Trail (US 41/South Eighth Street) and south of North Seventh Street, between ...

. He resigned on March 31, 2018, to run unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for

Florida's 27th congressional district Florida's 27th congressional district is an congressional district, electoral district for the U.S. Congress and was first created in South Florida during 2012, effective January 2013, as a result of the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. T ...

in the 2018 election.

Early life and education

Barreiro is the son of Cuban immigrant parents and was born in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...

. He graduated from Christopher Columbus High School and attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

Political career

Florida House of Representatives

Barreiro was first elected into public office in 1992 to serve in the Florida House of Representatives representing District 107. While serving in the Florida House of Representatives, he chaired the Tourism Committee. He also got the nickname "el mudo" (the mute).

Miami-Dade County Commission

On June 2, 1998, Barreiro was elected to serve as Miami-Dade County Commissioner representing District 5. He served as Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners in 2007 and 2008. He was re-elected for subsequent terms to represent constituents in portions of the Cities of Miami and Miami Beach, as well as the communities of Little Havana, Downtown, and South Beach. Barreiro was a key figure behind the

Marlins Park LoanDepot Park (officially stylized as loanDepot park, and named Marlins Park until 2021) is a retractable roof stadium located in Miami, Florida, United States. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins. It is located on on ...

baseball stadium in Miami, which attracted controversy due to its enormous cost to Miami-Dade County and benefit to Marlins owner

Jeffrey Loria Jeffrey Harold Loria (born November 20, 1940) is an American entrepreneur, author, and the former owner of the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) and Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. Early life Loria was born and raised in a Je ...

. Barreiro voted in 2012 to award a $25 Million contract to Munilla Construction Management (MCM) for a testing track for

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the List ...

cars after receiving maximum donations from 4 Munilla family members, renting subsidized office space from the family, and acknowledging he was "close friends" with the family members. As of November 30, 2015, $21 Million of the $25 Million contract had been paid and construction was never completed. In 2018, the ''Miami Herald'' described Barreiro as "a powerful figure in Miami politics."

2018 U.S. House campaign

In May 2017, Barreiro announced he would run for

in the 2018 election, after incumbent Congresswoman

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ( ; ; born July 15, 1952) is an American politician and lobbyist from Miami, Florida, who represented from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She was Chairwoman ...

announced she was retiring. On March 31, 2018, Barreiro resigned his County Commission seat to run for Congress, following a change in Florida's resign-to-run law. He timed his resignation so that a special election would be called, in which his wife Zoraida could win his seat. He used over $95,000 of his own campaign funds to support Zoraida, but she lost the June special election to Democratic candidate Eileen Higgins. Barreiro's support of his wife's campaign weakened his ability to campaign against his eight challengers for the Republican House nomination, of whom the strongest was TV journalist

Maria Elvira Salazar Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

. Salazar ultimately won the August primary election with 40.5% of the vote, with Barreiro coming in second place with 25.7%.

2020 Florida House of Representatives

Barreiro ran for District 112 in the

2020 Florida House of Representatives election The 2020 elections for the Florida House of Representatives took place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, to elect Florida House of Representatives, representatives from all 120 districts. The Republican Party of Florida, Republican Party has held a ...

, challenging incumbent Nick Duran. Duran defeated Barreiro 53%-47%.

2021 Miami City Commission

On June 4, 2021, Barreiro filed paperwork to challenge

Joe Carollo Joseph Xavier Carollo (born March 12, 1955) is a Cuban-American politician who served as mayor of Miami from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. Following his loss in the 2001 mayoral election, he served as Doral, Florida city manager fr ...

for city commission district 3. He withdrew from the race on July 21.

Electoral history

Personal life

He and his wife Zoraida are parents of two children, Bianca Fatima and Bruno Antonio. Barreiro is the owner of BABJ Investment Corporation, Marketing Vice President of Fatima Home Care and a Director of IUSA Partners, Inc.

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Barreiro, Bruno 1965 births Living people 21st-century Florida politicians Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives American politicians of Cuban descent University of Miami alumni Politicians from Clearwater, Florida Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Florida Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections 20th-century members of the Florida Legislature