José Javier Rodríguez (born August 8, 1978) is an American politician and attorney from
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne ( es, Cayo Vizcaíno, link=no) is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies sout ...
, and downtown
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
in
Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
. He previously served two terms in the
Florida House of Representatives
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
, representing the 112th district in Miami-Dade County from 2012 until his election to the Senate.
He is the nominee to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Employment & Training at the
United States Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
in the
Biden administration
Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...
.
Early life and education
Rodríguez grew up in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, where he was an
Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...
. He attended
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, receiving a degree in international relations in 2000.
Career
Florida House of Representatives
In 2012, following the
reconfiguration
In discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science, reconfiguration problems are computational problems involving reachability or connectivity of state spaces.
Types of problems
Here, a state space is a discrete set of configurations of a s ...
of the state's legislative districts Rodríguez opted to run in the newly created 112th District. He faced Alex Dominguez in the Democratic primary, which the ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'' called a "low-key" race compared to the acidic
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
primary. Rodríguez was able to defeat Dominguez by a fairly wide margin, winning the primary with 58% of the vote and advancing to the general election, where he faced former
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
Description
A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...
Alex Díaz de la Portilla
Alejandro Díaz de la Portilla (born August 25, 1964) is a political consultant and former politician from Florida. A Republican, Díaz de la Portilla was a City of Miami Commissioner for District 1 and a member of the Florida Senate from 2000 ...
. Against Díaz de la Portilla, Rodríguez campaigned on supporting public education, encouraging economic growth, and the fresh perspective that he would bring to the legislature, noting, "My opponent practically invented the business model of pandering to voters in Miami and then selling us out in Tallahassee." Ultimately, Rodríguez defeated Díaz de la Portilla by a relatively slim margin, receiving 54% of the vote to his opponent's 46%.
Florida Senate
In 2016, court-ordered redistricting created a new 37th district which included all of Rodríguez's house district. Rodríguez decided to run for the new seat against incumbent state senator
Miguel Díaz de la Portilla
Miguel Díaz de la Portilla (born January 30, 1963) is a Cuban-American attorney and politician from Florida. A Republican, he served in the Florida Senate from 2010 to 2016, representing parts of Miami, Coral Gables, and the surrounding area ...
, the brother of Alex. Rodríguez defeated Díaz de la Portilla in the general election, 49 to 46%.
In 2020, Rodríguez lost his re-election bid to Republican
Ileana Garcia
Ileana Ydolia Garcia is a Republican politician from Florida, who serves as a member of the Florida Senate.
Early life
The daughter of Cuban exiles, Garcia grew up in Florida. Her career was in media, working in both television and radio.
Poli ...
by a narrow margin of 34 votes. The ballot also included an independent candidate with the same surname, Alex Rodríguez, who was previously registered as Republican. He received more than 6,000 votes and his campaign was funded with
dark money
In the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections where the source of the money is not disclosed to voters. In the United States, some types of nonprofit organizations may spend money on campaigns wi ...
linked to Republican strategists. Former state senator
Frank Artiles
Frank Artiles (born April 22, 1973) is a Cuban-American Republican politician from Florida. He served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, representing parts of Miami-Dade County from 2010 to 2016, before being elected to the Fl ...
, a Republican, took credit for engineering Alex Rodríguez's run and Garcia's subsequent victory, according to a report by ''
The Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.Joe Biden nominated Rodriguez to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Employment & Training in the
Department of Labor
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
. Hearings were held on the nomination in the
Senate HELP Committee
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) generally considers matters relating to these issues. Its jurisdiction also extends beyond these issues to include several more specific areas, as defined by Sena ...
on October 7, 2021. The committee deadlocked on the nomination on October 26, 2021. Rodriguez's initial nomination expired at the end of the year and was returned to President Biden on January 3, 2022.
President Biden resent his nomination to the Senate the following day. On January 13, 2022, the committee reported his nomination favorably to the Senate floor. His nomination is currently pending before the entire Senate.
Personal life
Rodríguez married Sonia Succar Ferré, the granddaughter of former Miami mayor
Maurice Ferré
Maurice Antonio Ferré (June 23, 1935 – September 19, 2019) was an American politician who served six terms as the Mayor of Miami. Ferré was the first Puerto Rican-born United States mayor and the first Latino Mayor of Miami. He was an unsu ...