MIAMI — When Miami-Dade County’s leading Democrat wanted to make news with her first marquee hire of 2025, she picked a Republican sure to make a splash.

For a newly created position of small-business adviser, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava picked Manny Cid, a suburban restaurant owner who also was her leading GOP challenger in the 2024 county mayor election that was decided in August.

In giving the former Miami Lakes mayor the $203,000 position of “senior advisor for economic opportunity,” Levine Cava has a living example of the bipartisanship she’s been trying to highlight since November brought historic losses for her party in Miami-Dade.

“I think she’s trying to do the right thing. And she sees the writing on the wall,” said Anthony Rodriguez, the Republican chair of the Miami-Dade County Commission. “This county is going more and more red every day. And she is one of the last standing Democrats in a high position.”

While some Democratic leaders of large metropolitan governments are publicly vowing to fight President-elect Donald Trump, Levine Cava has been highlighting cooperation with Republicans.

Two weeks after the Democratic drubbing on Election Day, the newly reelected mayor made sure the president-elect was mentioned in her Nov. 20 installation ceremony.

“We will work with President Trump to draw down additional funding to truly implement our SMART program,” Levine Cava said in a reference to the county’s plan for transit expansion, which relies on federal funding.

While Democrats still barely outnumbered Republicans in the county’s latest voter report, the GOP is on the rise in Miami-Dade. Republicans in November climbed to second place in the county voter rolls, displacing unaffiliateds as the No. 2 voter category. Democrats have watched their Miami-Dade numbers shrink for years and now are on track to lose the No. 1 slot to the GOP sometime later this year.

Results of partisan elections have been worse for Democrats. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won Miami-Dade by 11 points in his 2022 reelection campaign, and Trump took the county by the same margin. That was a dramatic comeback for the GOP, with Hillary Clinton beating Trump by 30 points eight years ago in Miami-Dade.

Trump’s Miami-Dade win also sank the Democratic candidates who were backed by Levine Cava and her political team for newly created countywide offices. The result: On Tuesday, Levine Cava loses authority over the Miami-Dade Police Department to Republican Sheriff-elect Rosie Cordero-Stutz and turns over the Elections Department to Republican Alina Garcia and the Tax Collector’s Office to Republican Dariel Fernandez.

On Monday, Levine Cava waved off the characterization of Cid’s hire as an example of newfound bipartisanship. Instead, she called Cid the right choice to be an advocate for small businesses.

“This is a person who is dedicated to public service. Who has good ideas that complement mine,” she said. “Together we can have a big impact.”

“I’m very grateful that I’m in a nonpartisan seat,” Levine Cava continued. “I think that has really made a difference. It allows me to more readily cross the aisle, which I’ve always done.”

Because county offices are officially nonpartisan, Levine Cava’s comfortable reelection win in August wasn’t a true test of party performance on a Miami-Dade ballot. She beat Cid by 35 points after he criticized her as being too liberal for Miami-Dade and for creating a county government that’s too top heavy.

“Any office that she started is going to be looked at for elimination,” Cid said in an August interview on his plans as county mayor. “Anything that was added in the last three years, it 100% is on the chopping block.”

Cid’s new county job is in the economic development office run by Levine Cava appointee Francesca de Quesada Covey. On Monday, he said the seeds of his hire began the day after his loss in the Aug. 20 election, when Levine Cava texted him to say she appreciated some of his ideas and suggested they talk about them in the future.

Cid spent the fall seeking government employment as he wrapped up his final year as Miami Lakes mayor and said he was a finalist for the Biscayne Park village manager position and tried for the top post in Key West, too. He decided to take up Levine Cava’s offer to meet, and that resulted in an interview with de Quesada Covey, who made the formal job offer.

“I’m working on a strategic plan for small businesses,” he said. “We’re hitting the ground running. I’m really excited.”

If the Trump mention at her installation ceremony hinted at Levine Cava’s lack of interest in friction with the incoming Republican administration, a dustup with team Trump over her plan for a new county incinerator cemented that impression.

On Nov. 22, Levine Cava recommended that commissioners approve building a $1.5 billion incinerator in Doral, where a trash-burning facility had operated since the 1980s before a fire two years ago shut down that operation.

Doral happens to be where Trump owns a golf resort, and opponents of Levine Cava’s plan reached out to the president-elect’s camp for help in blocking the mayor’s recommendation ahead of a planned Dec. 3 commission vote.

The Trump Organization’s local lobbyist, Felix Lasarte, reached out to Levine Cava for a call with Eric Trump, the son of the president who runs the family’s development and hospitality business. Levine Cava agreed and told the younger Trump she was planning to call for a delay on the incinerator decision, a reversal she blamed on newly found interest from environmental groups in pursuing landfill alternatives.

The Cid hire became public days before Levine Cava will be attending the installation ceremony for Cordero-Stutz, a Trump-backed Republican who takes over from the mayor as the top law enforcement officer in Miami-Dade.

Levine Cava’s staff arranged to have the news of Cid’s hire revealed in a Miami Herald editorial over the weekend. Commissioners weren’t given advanced notice of the high-profile hire.

“The failure to communicate with the Board of County Commissioners is an ongoing issue,” Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a Republican, said Monday. Regalado also questioned the need to bring on Cid at a six-figure salary when Miami-Dade is bracing for budget strain this year as the real estate market cools and leftover federal COVID dollars dwindle.

“We are in a place and time where we need to be streamlining county government,” she said.

The hire means a compensation bump for the 41-year-old Cid, a married father of four. A financial disclosure he filed for the 2024 campaign showed that in the prior year, he reported about $87,000 in income. Of that, $28,000 came from his part-time job as Miami Lakes mayor, compensation that ended when he left office in November after serving the maximum two terms.

In his campaign for county mayor, Cid, the owner of the Mayor’s Cafe diner, said he wanted to streamline the county bureaucracy to make it easier for small businesses to secure permits and other county approvals needed to open and expand.

He told the Editorial Board he plans to help Levine Cava with that effort: “I’ll be a voice for the common folks.”

His hire coincides with Rodriguez, a former Florida lawmaker, naming government spending as a top target as he takes over as board chair. On Monday, Rodriguez announced his slate of committee chairs, including Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, a fellow Republican, heading up a new panel on government efficiency.

In his interview Monday, Rodriguez emphasized he has a good relationship with Levine Cava and praised the mayor for making efficiency efforts part of Cid’s duties.

“Saving money for taxpayers is not a partisan issue,” Rodriguez said.

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