By Jesse Scheckner, Florida Politics
(Source: Miami Times)
Questions about what North Miami Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph wants to do after reaching term limits in November now have an answer: She hopes to reside in the Governor’s Mansion.
Joseph, a four-term state lawmaker representing northern Miami-Dade County in House District 109, filed paperwork Thursday to enter the crowded contest for Florida’s top executive.
Her Jacksonville-based campaign Treasurer, Keith Gabriel, confirmed with Florida Politics that it’s actually her running.
Joseph, whose entry to the race brought the gubernatorial candidate count to 49, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Georgetown- and Yale-educated lawyer born in Haiti who has lived in Florida since 1982, Joseph won election to the House in 2018 with 92% of the vote. She won re-election without opposition in 2020, defeated two Primary challengers in 2022 with 53.5% of the vote, and again coasted into re-election last cycle unopposed.
Despite being in a super-minority in the Legislature’s lower chamber, Joseph has worked as an ambitious lawmaker and consistently passed legislation, from bills relating to unemployment compensation, homeowners’ insurance and communications privacy to measures aimed at eliminating the statute of limitations on certain child sexual abuse cases and implementing stricter anti-human trafficking policies.
During the 2024 Legislative Session, she successfully sponsored measures to use state funds on court-appointed interpreters, enable parents to record spoken communications between their children and child predators, and authorize pharmacists to provide patients with emergency insulin in cases of emergency.
The past two Sessions were less fruitful for Joseph, who only passed symbolic legislation that set aside certain calendar days to commemorate causes and people.
For many, Joseph’s entry to the race — in which 19 had qualified by noon Thursday, one day before the deadline — is likely a head-scratcher. She has not publicly expressed interest in running for Governor. And in the past two years, her political committee, Victory Now, has raised just under $11,000 through May 31.
None of that sum came this year.
Since she opened the PC in late 2019, Joseph has raised just over $180,000 through it, of which less than $100,000 remains.
By comparison, the race’s Democratic frontrunner, former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, has raised more than $6.1 million.
Republican candidates Byron Donalds, Paul Renner and Jay Collins, meanwhile, have respectively stacked $81.6 million, $6.2 million and $3.5 million.
It also remains to be seen how Joseph will work to overcome a comparatively low statewide profile in the contest.
