Doral's embattled Republican Mayor, whose administration has been wrought with controversies surrounding Venezuelan ties and Palestinian sympathies, announced Wednesday that she scored the endorsement of the Miami-Dade GOP.
Except—she didn't.
"We did not [endorse her]," state Rep. Alex Rizo, the Chair of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, told The Floridian. "I asked that she take [her post] down."
Rizo pointed to Mayor Christi Fraga's Wednesday post on X, where she sent out a picture of herself next to an image stating, "The Republican Party of Miami-Dade County, Florida proudly endorses Christi Fraga [for] City of Doral Mayor."
Fraga said on social media that she was "deeply honored" to receive the endorsement for her re-election campaign, claiming it shows the "shared commitment" to advancing the community's "prosperity."
Vice Chairman of the Miami-Dade GOP Kevin Cooper told The Floridian that the committee must vote to issue an endorsement per their bylaws. In Fraga's case, they never did.
"Fraga didn't attend our last meeting, no vote was taken, and no endorsement was made in that race," he said.
This isn't the first time Fraga has come under fire. In May, months after the terrorist group Hamas ambushed scores of Israeli civilians, she coordinated with a "Free Palestine" activist to pen a resolution calling for a "no hostilities" ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. Considering most Republicans are ardently pro-Israel, a slew of internal backlash caused her to walk back the ceasefire call and replace it with a staunchly pro-Israel resolution.
Earlier this month, The Floridian discovered that her PAC gave money to Carlos Fung, a former supporter of the brutal Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, and Fung's video production company.
At the time of publishing, Fraga has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Elected as the Doral Mayor in 2022, Fraga will face off against businesswoman and real estate agent Roxanna Garay, another Republican, to keep her seat on Nov. 5.
