Why Does Laura Loomer Care So Much About the Miami Mayoral Race?

Yesterday, for some reason, Laura Loomer jumped off her Islamophobia train to provide her two cents about the November 4 City of Miami mayoral election.

Florida’s very own far-right provocateur, self-described proud Islamophobe, and once-rumored Donald Trump side piece, took a brief break from attacking the Muslim community on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to deem Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo — who is running to reclaim the mayoral gavel he wielded in 1996-97 and again from 1998 till 2001— “woke,” and not a true Republican.

Loomer, who appears to be an avid New Times reader, referenced an August story about Carollo’s monthly event in Little Havana featuring performances by a local Cuban drag queen. She included a screenshot of New Times’ Facebook post about the story along with a quote from Carollo noting that the performers “are not transvestites.”

She also pointed out that Carollo’s District 3 staff was recently caught on video taking down campaign signs that touted rival mayoral candidate Emilio González.

“It’s very important that Miami, Florida, remains RED and that a strong, America First, pro-Trump candidate becomes mayor of Miami, that’s the city where President Trump’s Presidential library is being built,” Loomer wrote in her Monday, October 20, tweet. “We cannot allow Miami to become a cesspool of WOKE degeneracy.

Joe Carollo Has Been Called Many Things, But “Woke” Wasn’t One of Them

Surprisingly, given Loomer’s tendency to be chronically online, she is seemingly unaware that “woke” is not a word that’s likely to come to mind when describing Joe Carollo.

This is the man who claimed his then-fellow Commissioner Ken Russell, the city’s first Asian-American commissioner and now another opponent in the 2025 mayor’s race, bore a resemblance to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

“I’ve been meaning to say, but I wanted to wait until the end,” Carollo said toward the close of the proceedings of a 2018 commission meeting. “The more I look at you, I’m becoming fond of that Kim Jong-un new look you’ve got.”

And as referenced above, Carollo still uses the outdated term “transvestites,” which many find offensive, and routinely jabs at filmmaker and fierce Carollo critic Billy Corben’s Jewish heritage by invoking his legal name, calling him “little Billy Cohen.” The Miami-born documentarian, who adopted the surname Corben in response to anti-Semitism while working as a child actor, says Carollo references his legal name as an anti-Semitic dog whistle. (Carollo also once compared a Black city manager to former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.)

That’s not very woke of Joe.

Still, Loomer managed to convince her X crowd that Carollo wasn’t sufficiently MAGA for Miami.

“Miami deserves better than corruption and drag shows for Kids,” one user responded. “Florida must stay RED and AMERICA FIRST.”

“Keep Miami RED and fight these corrupt tactics,” another added.

Yet another chimed in, “Drag Show Joe @JoeCarolloNow is the Joe Biden of Miami Politics.”