Miami-Dade County has approved a request to rename a major thoroughfare in Hialeah in honor of President-elect Donald J. Trump in South Florida.
The County Commission voted 9 to 1 on Tuesday to approve Hialeah’s initiative to rename Palm Avenue as “Donald J. Trump Avenue,” marking a symbolic tribute in a region where Trump has retained strong support among Republican voters.
The vote came despite the commission’s Democratic majority, which holds seven of the 13 seats on the officially nonpartisan board, the Miami Herald reported.
“Today, we ratified the City of Hialeah’s initiative to honor President Trump’s legacy of championing freedom and opportunity by co-designating Palm Avenue—a vital artery in our community—as ‘President Donald J. Trump Avenue,’” Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Notably, only one Democrat, Marleine Bastien, a Haitian American who represents northern Miami and nearby communities, cast a vote against the renaming.
“I respect the fact that President Trump won the popular vote, the Electoral College and Miami-Dade County,” Bastien said after the vote. “However, his victory does not erase the collective trauma that immigrants and citizens alike felt during this election cycle.”
Despite Miami-Dade County’s long history as a Democratic bastion, it flipped red in the 2024 election, marking a significant shift. Not since George H.W. Bush in 1988 had a Republican presidential candidate captured the county, a streak Trump broke spectacularly.
On November 5, the president-elect garnered 55.2% of the votes in Miami-Dade according to NBC Miami, while Kamala Harris managed only 43.71%. This was a massive contrast to previous elections, where Democrats had performed strongly.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton secured 624,146 votes to Trump’s 333,999, and in 2020, Joe Biden received 617,864 votes, or 53.4% of the total, with Trump trailing at 46.1% or 532,833 votes.
The Miami-Dade County Commission has passed an item to rename Palm Avenue as President Donald J. Trump Avenue, commemorating the legacy of the 45th and 47th President of the United States. #AmericaFirst #HialeahFirst pic.twitter.com/PkPCWYhAhq
— Esteban Bovo (@MayorBovo) December 3, 2024
The victory was reflective of Trump’s overall success in Florida, where he secured 54.8% of the state vote, outpacing Harris’s 44.2%. This continued his winning trend in the state, following victories over Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
According to the commission clerk, the motion to rename the avenue to Trump Avenue received bipartisan support, with affirmative votes from four Democrats—and five Republicans, including Chair Anthony Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Bermudez, Raquel Regalado, Roberto Rodriguez, and the proposal’s sponsor, Kevin Cabrera. Trump Avenue was approved along with other uncontested agenda items because no commissioner requested an individual vote.
Kevin Cabrera, a Republican aspiring for a role in the upcoming Trump administration, explained, “The renaming legislation shouldn’t be controversial because other politicians get street namings, too.” He highlighted past recognitions such as the 2016 approval by the County Commission of “President Barack and Michelle Obama Boulevard” in Miami Gardens, according to the Herald.
During the same meeting, commissioners effortlessly approved a proposal urging Florida to honor a Democratic congresswoman from Miami-Dade, Rep. Frederica Wilson, by naming a state-maintained road in Miami Gardens after her as well.
