Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson is on fire, but certainly not because she’s overheating at the barbecue pit.
“You know,” she said, “I’m not here just to feed my constituency chicken wings or what do you call it, shrimp and grits?”
(/Johania Charles for The Biscayne Times)
Commissioner Keon Hardemon (center) at a February 2024 ribbon-cutting ceremony in downtown Miami for The Source Miami tech hub.
Edmonson’s remark to reporter Johania Charles in an extensive interview is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s infamous 1992 quote: “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession.”
The former commissioner and El Portal mayor is vying to win her old District 3 seat back. Edmonson announced her decision to re-enter the political arena last month, telling Charles at our sister newspaper, The Miami Times, that she was encouraged to run.
“You have the Hispanics, you have the whites, the African Americans … the Haitians, you have a diverse community here and I have heard from every single one of these communities urging me to please run,” she said.
Commissioner Keon Hardemon is the incumbent. He left his commission seat in the city of Miami to run for county when Edmonson left office due to term limits, after she’d served the district from 2005 to 2020.
As for suggestions that she will divide the Black vote, Edmonson dismissed that.
“Don’t forget that District 3 is a very diverse community. It’s not just Black. It’s also along the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor, Miami Shores, El Portal, Venetian Causeway. It’s very diverse,” she said.
So, why the itch to get back to county government at 71?
“I’m running because District 3 needs a voice for the voiceless and that’s a fact,” said Edmonson. “I’ve had calls from the residents in the community and they’re all saying they cannot reach their current commissioner, nor is he showing his face. I have been active in the community. I stayed engaged and connected … and I will continue to stay engaged and connected in the community.”
In the news release announcing her intent to run against Hardemon, Edmonson listed community development, sea-level rise, public safety, affordable housing, economic growth and improving mass transit as her priorities. To The Miami Times she expressed her frustration about important matters she believes have gone unaddressed in her absence from the dais.
“There’s a host of issues that I led when I was in [the seat] and nothing has happened, no improvements, such as traffic gridlock, community development, gun violence, affordable housing and workforce housing,” she said. “The only thing I can say is, District 3 is in urgent care.”
While Hardemon did not grant The Miami Times an interview, he sent a written statement disputing Edmonson’s assertions that he’s been lax.
“Our office has been steadfast in the development of affordable housing, the eradication of poverty, and the elimination of gun violence in our community. In three short years, we have provided and pledged substantial dollars to educate and employ at-risk youth, implemented plans to beautify our community to attract and maintain residents and businesses,” he wrote.
This is not the first time these two have faced off. Hardemon initially challenged Edmonson in 2012 as a 27-year-old attorney and lost, though he performed better than most people predicted. There is no love lost between the two seasoned politicians.
Fundraising will be key for Edmonson, who no longer has the power of incumbency.
“You have a commissioner who is very vindictive, and who actually punishes his own citizens or his own constituency because they did not support him,” she said in a sharp accusation, but Edmonson says that if she’s the victor on election night, she’ll work hard to win the support of anyone who backed Hardemon, no hard feelings.
“I’m not here to be vindictive or mistreat my own constituency. I am here to be available and accessible, to return calls like I have a reputation of doing,” she said.
Expect a bare-knuckle race between these two old foes.
Again, Hardemon has declined offers to be interviewed about Edmonson’s challenge, although the offer still stands. And although we may not see him serving up chicken wings either, he's certainly out and about.