Miami Beach commission candidate apologizes after falsely claiming to be Hispanic
Former Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said Thursday she “wasn’t even conscious” of what she was saying when she told Democratic Party leaders while seeking their campaign endorsement last week that she was Hispanic — even though she is not.
“I have always identified politically as a Hispanic,” Rosen Gonzalez, who is hoping voters will return her to the Miami Beach Commission this November, told the Miami Herald Editorial Board during a scheduled interview Thursday. “I’ve apologized and I’ve said I am obviously not Hispanic.”
The apology came a day after Miami Herald news partner CBS4 wrote about Rosen Gonzalez’s claim in a Miami-Dade Democratic Party endorsement interview, during which she was also questioned about previous statements she made regarding the police.
Rosen Gonzalez, who served on the city’s seven-member commission from 2015 to 2018 before resigning to run for Congress, added “Gonzalez” to her last name upon her marriage in 2001 to Emilio Gonzalez. Rosen is her maiden name. The couple divorced in 2009.
She is one of five candidates running for the Group 1 seat in the Nov. 2 Miami Beach general election. The other candidates are: Greg Branch, Adrian Gonzalez, Raquel Pacheco and Blake Young. Branch and Pacheco are also Democrats. If no one receives 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 2, there will be a runoff.
According to CBS4 Investigative Reporter Jim DeFede, this isn’t the first time Rosen Gonzalez has played up her last name during campaigns. When she placed third in 2018 in the Democratic Party’s primary race for Florida’s 27th congressional district, other campaigns attributed her surprisingly strong showing to her Hispanic surname, the only one in the race.
This year, Rosen Gonzalez faces Hispanic opponents in her current race for city commission. But during her interview last week with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, Rosen Gonzalez is heard calling herself “the most high-profile Hispanic Democrat in the City of Miami Beach.”
The party, which had not made an endorsement as of Thursday afternoon, provided a recording of the interview to the Herald. On Thursday, Chairman Robert Dempster distanced the local party from Rosen Gonzalez’s comments.
“The Miami-Dade Democratic Party is proud to be comprised of a broadly representative cross section of our county,” said Dempster. “Ms. Rosen Gonzalez’s comments speak for themselves and in no way reflect any position held by our membership.”
This isn’t the first time Rosen Gonzalez — who has had at times a controversial political career — has come under fire for something she said.
In July, she raised eyebrows when she asked voters to donate money to her campaign and visit her new restaurant. In 2018, she said she misspoke when she called the “vast majority” of people in Florida’s 27th congressional district “uneducated.” In 2017, Rosen Gonzalez wrote an email to the then police chief after a weekend shooting in South Beach, calling for Miami Beach to “give the cops back their bullets.”
During the Editorial Board interview Thursday, Rosen Gonzalez said “I may not always say the right thing, but actions speak louder than words.”
“We live in a society where we have to be very careful about what we say,” she told the board. “That’s what pains me...so much hard work with one unconscious statement can undo anything. I hope the residents of Miami Beach will understand where I was coming from.”
Rosen Gonzalez, who is fluent in Spanish, posted a Spanish language campaign ad Thursday. In a comment with the video she once again asked for forgiveness.
“My children are Hispanic, I am very close to our Hispanic community, my fiancée is Cuban and I made a mistake,” she wrote. “That does not make me Hispanic. I deeply apologize to any one I may have offended.”
