Ex-foreign affairs officer Moises Benhabib wants to apply his federal know-how to the Legislature, where he hopes to throw a lifeline to Miami-Dade County families and businesses struggling amid rising costs.
He'll also bring ample national security insights to the job, though for now, he's more focused on helping those in his hometown keep roofs over their heads — in more ways than one.
"I've been sad seeing everyone leave because they can't afford to live here anymore," he told Florida Politics. "I feel like I can really make a difference."
His list of priorities checks many Miami boxes: improving affordability, lowering property taxes and insurance costs, improving education, reducing traffic congestion, helping businesses.
But it's not all superficial talking points. He has policy proposals.
To help families get by, he wants to provide parents or people trying to have kids with additional homestead exemptions of up to $25,000 more, in addition to the existing $50,000 max. That would extend to public servants as well, he said, "because we need to take care of the people who take care of us."
He's a fan of Amendment 5, which would adjust property taxes to reflect inflation. Critics argue it will shift cost burdens to non-property owners and create problems if the housing market crashes again.
Benhabib said if voters reject the measure in November, he'd sponsor legislation to effectuate the change.
He also wants to lower the amount of reinsurance that insurers can use and add more to the My Safe Florida Home Program, which provides grants to help homeowners strengthen their properties against seasonal storms.
Asked what he'd do for renters, Benhabib said he supports initiatives like the Live Local Act, which among other things created a tax incentives program for property owners and real estate developers that offer portions of their rentable units at lower rates.
The market will also self-correct, he said.
"I myself am a landlord, and I totally understand where (people who complain about exorbitant rents) are coming from. I actually lowered rents in some cases, because we have to keep the market competitive," he said.
He owns MIB Holdings, which operates properties in the Miami and Washington, D.C., areas.
Benhabib, 33, was born at Hialeah Hospital to Cuban expat parents. His father is a Republican. His late mother, a Blue Dog Democrat. He self-identifies as a "Miami Republican" who subscribes to Ronald Reagan-style conservatism on fiscal and government issues and libertarianism on social ones.
He supports Donald Trump, under whom he worked at the U.S. Department of State, where he spent nearly eight years as a foreign affairs officer and special assistant at the Bureau of Legislative Affairs.
In August 2022, he left for a private-sector job as Senior Director of Juvare Federal and Defense.
Benhabib holds a master's degree in statecraft and national security from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor's degree in government and world affairs from the University of Tampa on a full-ride Naval ROTC scholarship.
He interned for the Republican National Committee in Tampa, after which he received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve. He also interned under U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
"I've had a mixed raising, politically," he said. "On some positions, I'm super conservative. On others, I'm middle-of-the-road, just like anyone else here in Miami."
Take abortion, for instance. Benhabib said he believes Amendment 4, which would protect a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy until the point of viability, is "a little extreme. But the state's current six-week limit "is not right either."
"There's a middle here," he said. "I'm personally pro-life, but I understand people make mistakes."
Asked where the limit should be, Benhabib said he'd "leave it up to the constituents."
He's keener on Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.
"People are doing it anyways," he said. "Obviously, it needs to be in their homes or a place where it's not bothering anybody or messing with kids, but people of my generation don't really care about it or are supportive of it."
If elected, Benhabib hopes to revive Florida's film and television production incentives program, which state lawmakers let die in 2016 after four consecutive years of no new funding. Bills have been filed since to bring it back, though none succeeded.
Benhabib said he's interested in creating a similar program for the pharmaceutical industry, the economic impact of which was perhaps never more evident than during the pandemic.
The bottom line, he said, is Florida needs more foreign and direct investments, and SelectFlorida in its current state isn't cutting it.
"We should have an Office of International Affairs at the state level, with a whole team assigned to going out, visiting countries with trade delegations and then connecting them with Florida communities," he said.
"Florida has five major airports and four massive seaports, and with some streamlining we can really make the economic case to countries and corporations to invest more here at a level that, from the outside looking in, I don't see us doing now."
Benhabib faces two Primary opponents. One is Alian Collazo, a longtime St. Petersburg resident and former Chief of Staff to freshman Miami Republican state Sen. Alexis Calatayud who has enjoyed significant financial support from elected members of the Florida GOP.
The other is Miami-Dade Fire Department Capt. Omar Blanco, who has raised more than six figures thanks to ample backing from fellow first responders.
Benhabib has raised $60,000 since he filed in late March. Of that, $50,000 is from his bank account.
Whoever wins the Aug. 20 Primary will face the lone Democrat in the race, Norma Perez Schwartz, for the right to succeed Republican Rep. Alina García in House District 115.
HD 106 covers Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, and the unincorporated neighborhoods of The Falls, Kendall and Westchester.
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