Carlos A. Giménez
Carlos Antonio Giménez is an American politician and retired firefighter serving as the U.S. representative for since 2023. He was redistricted from in 2022, which he took office in 2021. A Republican, he served as mayor of Miami-Dade County from 2011 to 2020. He served as a Miami-Dade County Commissioner from 2003 to 2011, and was the fire chief of the Miami Fire-Rescue Department.
Giménez supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, but in 2020 he ran as a supporter of President Donald Trump and was endorsed by him. He defeated incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in the election.
Giménez serves as one of the Republican assistant whips under Steve Scalise.
Early life and education
Giménez was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1954 into a prosperous landowner family from the Oriente province. His family immigrated to the United States after losing their lands in the Cuban Revolution and the subsequent agrarian reforms, settling in what became Miami's Little Havana.Giménez attended Columbus High School near Miami and earned a bachelor's degree in public administration from Barry University. In 1993, he completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Miami Fire-Rescue Department
Giménez joined the Miami Fire-Rescue Department as a firefighter in 1975. He was appointed fire chief in 1991, becoming the first Cuban-American to hold the position, and served until 2000.Giménez is a former member of the International City Managers Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Protection Association, the Florida Fire Chiefs, and the Fire Officers Association of Miami-Dade. He also served on the Federal Emergency Management Agency Urban Search and Rescue Advisory Committee and as the chair of the Legal Issues Subcommittee.
Miami City manager (2000–2003)
From May 2000 to January 2003, Giménez served as city manager of Miami proper, appointed by then-mayor Joe Carollo to replace incumbent Donald Warshaw. During his tenure, the city government improved its bond credit rating from junk status to in excess of investment grade.Miami-Dade county commissioner (2005–2011)
In 2004, Giménez was elected as a Miami-Dade County Commissioner for the county's 7th district, beating former mayor of Miami Xavier Suarez. His district included Miami proper, the Village of Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, South Miami, Kendall, and Pinecrest.County mayoralty (2011–2020)
Giménez was elected mayor of the metropolitan government of Miami-Dade County, Florida on June 28, 2011, in the 2011 Miami-Dade County mayoral special election. Incumbent mayor Carlos Alvarez had been recalled in one of the largest recall elections of a municipal official in U.S. history. No candidate got over 50% of the popular vote in the first round, so a runoff election was held. Giménez won the runoff with 51% of the vote to Julio Robaina's 49%.During his 2011 campaign, Giménez promised that if elected, he would cut his own salary. After he was elected, he kept this promise, cutting his own salary and benefits by 50%.
Giménez was reelected in the 2012 Miami-Dade County mayoral election with 54% of the vote against multiple candidates, and in 2016 with 56% of the vote against school board member Raquel Regalado.
Cooperation with ICE
In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting "sanctuary" jurisdictions that limited or refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, ordering a review of their access to federal funding. Miami-Dade received a letter from the administration that the county had been flagged as a sanctuary jurisdiction. Giménez then ordered the director of his corrections department to begin honoring all requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Miami Dade County Board of Commissioners formally codified his order by a 9 to 3 vote. The Department of Justice later confirmed the county was no longer flagged as a sanctuary jurisdiction. In December 2018, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal dismissed a lawsuit filed in state court challenging the county's detention policy.Election administration
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Giménez limited the number of ballot drop locations. His office sent mail-in ballots to voters later than required by state law.Before the 2020 election, the Miami Heat sought to make AmericanAirlines Arena the early voting site for downtown Miami. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, the NBA had sought to "channel demands for social justice into a voting drive by turning arenas into polling places." The city was close to signing an agreement with the Heat that included a ban on political advertising in the arena while voting was underway. Giménez intervened and the city ultimately selected the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, a previous longtime polling location, as Miami's early voting location, citing its proximity to a Metromover station as well as access to ground-level parking. The Frost Museum site was smaller than the arena and elections staff had not mentioned it on a draft list of 33 early voting sites that the staff worked on to prepare safe voting during a pandemic.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2020
In January 2020, Giménez announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2020 U.S. House election for Florida's 26th congressional district. He was term-limited from running again as mayor. Four years earlier, in the 2016 presidential election, Giménez had endorsed Hillary Clinton. In 2020, he said that he had "made a mistake" in supporting Clinton. Having previously distanced himself from Trump, Giménez ran as a pro-Trump Republican in 2020. He ran on a platform of repealing the Affordable Care Act and opposing a carbon tax. Trump endorsed Giménez in January 2020. On August 18, 2020, Giménez won the Republican primary election, defeating Omar Blanco with 59.9% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated incumbent Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. He was likely aided by Trump's strong showing in Miami-Dade County: he carried the 26th district with 53% of the vote after losing it by 16 percentage points four years earlier.Tenure
In late 2020, Giménez was a member of Freedom Force, a group of incoming Republican House members who "say they're fighting against socialism in America". On February 4, 2021, he joined 10 other House Republicans voting with all voting Democrats to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her House Education and Labor Committee, and House Budget Committee assignments in response to conspiratorial and violent statements she had made.In March 2021, Giménez voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Committee assignments
For the 119th Congress:- Committee on Armed Services
- * Subcommittee on Readiness
- * Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
- Committee on Homeland Security
- * Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection
- * Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security
- Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party
Caucus memberships
Political positions
Epstein files
During the congressional debate over the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Representative Carlos A. Giménez gave mixed public signals about the release of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Earlier in 2025, Giménez downplayed the issue, telling CNN that “Americans are over the Epstein case” and stating that he had not heard concerns from constituents about the files, remarks that were cited by local media as evidence of his reluctance to prioritize the legislation.Giménez later voted in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act when it reached the House floor on November 18, 2025. Reporting noted that the vote occurred after President Donald Trump publicly indicated support for allowing the legislation to advance, at which point most House Republicans, including Giménez, backed the measure.
2016 vote for Hillary Clinton
On Oct. 9, 2016, in a televised debate while running for reelection as County Mayor, Giménez said that he would vote for Hillary Clinton and called on Donald Trump to step down as his party’s nominee. Giménez said on CBS4, “Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I’m not voting for Donald Trump. Obviously, I must be voting for Hillary Clinton.” He continued, “Donald Trump needs to step down. I don’t think he is viable as a presidential candidate.”2020 presidential election
After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump refused to concede while making false claims of fraud, Giménez defended Trump and said he should not concede. He later voted against certification of Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes. Giménez voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump on January 13, 2021.On May 19, 2021, Giménez was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
LGBT rights
In 2021, Giménez was among the House Republicans to sponsor the Fairness for All Act, the Republican-proposed alternative to the Equality Act. The bill would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and protect the free exercise of religion. While he was Miami-Dade mayor, Giménez announced his support for the Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex marriage bans violate the Constitution.In 2021, Giménez was one of 29 Republicans to vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. This bill expanded legal protections for transgender people, and contained provisions allowing transgender women to use women's shelters and serve time in prisons matching their gender identity.
On July 19, 2022, Giménez and 46 other Republican representatives voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to same-sex marriage in federal law.