Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam said Wednesday he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, a move that allows him to raise money as he moves closer to announcing a candidacy for the 2020 nomination.
Messam announced the move a day after he was overwhelmingly re-elected as mayor of the state’s 13th largest city.
He said in a telephone interview he expects to make a decision on running by the end of March and the exploratory committee would help him “ensure that once a decision is officially made, that we’re off to a sharp and a quick start.”
Most presidential candidates create exploratory committees, even when there’s no doubt they will ultimately announce they’re running. Besides creating a legal mechanism to raise and spend money, the move generates publicity.
Assuming he runs, Messam plans to emphasize the importance of helping people achieve the American dream – and how that is exemplified by his own story: son of an immigrant sugar cane cutter, championship college football player, owner of a construction business and community leader.
“I am living the American dream that my parents came to this country to have, and one that is slipping away from average Americans,” he said. “We have to re-commit to making that reality achievable again.”
If he runs, Messam said, “I’m running to win.”
Messam, who is the son of Jamaican immigrants, is paying especially close attention to South Carolina and Nevada, two of the first four states in the presidential nominating process.
Nevada, which holds caucuses on Feb. 22, has a large population of voters who immigrated to the U.S. or are children of immigrants.
South Carolina, which votes on Feb. 29, is the first primary state with a significant black population. Messam, who was the 2018 president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, said he would visit South Carolina before the end of March.
Besides South Carolina and Nevada, Messam said he’s looking at Iowa, where the Feb. 3 caucuses begin the nominating process. The thinking is that voters might look positively at his football background, rural roots and involvement in his church, where he is a deacon.
Messam grew up in the South Bay in western Palm Beach County, where his father was a laborer in the region’s sugar cane fields. He was starting wide receiver and member of Florida State University’s 1993 national championship football team.
As mayor, he’s taken stands that could please Democrats: Challenging a National Rifle Association-backed law in an attempt to make a new city amphitheater a gun-free zone, touted his city as a safe zone for undocumented immigrants, and fighting against oil drilling in the Everglades. He supports action to combat climate change.
Messam, 44, was a frequent representative on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, and campaigned on her behalf in South Carolina. He was one of the earliest South Florida supporters of Andrew Gillum’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign.
Still, a presidential candidacy would be a long shot.
Messam leads a city of 150,000 residents. Though he received an impressive 86 percent of the vote in his bid for a second term on Tuesday, just 8 percent of the city’s 83,452 voters participated.
Already, 14 Democrats — many with high political profiles — are already seeking their party’s presidential nomination, and that doesn’t count prominent additional possible candidates, such as former Vice President Joe Biden.
One of the Democrats, Pete Buttigieg, 37, is mayor of South Bend, Ind., a smaller city than Miramar (about 102,000 population). Buttigieg has he’s generated a lot of attention with his campaign.
Messam said his service as mayor – a job that puts him close to people and non-Washington solutions is a selling point. He said he’s “not comparing myself to the other mayor.”
Messam has flouted conventional wisdom before. After one term on the Miramar City Commission, he challenged — and defeated — four-term incumbent Mayor Lori Moseley in 2015.
Messam said he began thinking about running about four months ago.
Last month, he asked the state Division of Elections to clarify how a state law requiring elected officials to resign when they formally qualify to run for another office applies to someone running for president. He hasn’t yet received a ruling.
aman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4550 or Twitter @browardpolitics