Wilson Jr. wins Miami Gardens council seat: ‘Something that I wanted to do my way’

Loud cheers were heard Tuesday night at Miami Gardens’ Omega Activity Center when Paul V. Wilson Jr. walked in and hugged his mother, retiring U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who served in elected office for more than 30 years.

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Now, she gets to pass the baton to her son.

Paul Wilson was elected to Seat 2 on the Miami Gardens City Council, serving neighborhoods including Norland and Andover. He’ll serve a four-year term. Wilson won with about 55% of the vote against challengers Linnette Smith, with 23%, and Lavern V. Deer, with 22%.

Like his mother, Wilson worked in education and has worked closely with the local 5,000 Role Models nonprofit. But on Tuesday night, he said it was important for him to have his own identity.

“I didn’t want to come into this as the son of a congresswoman,” Wilson said after his win. “I wanted to come in as Paul Wilson.”

Wilson celebrated his victory with family, friends and a 12-person junkanoo band that danced around the event hall, a nod to the new commissioner’s Bahamian roots.

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“This was a labor of love,” he said of his victory. “This was something that I was extremely passionate about, and this was something that I wanted to do my way.”

In the race for the council’s Seat 4, Mykita Cherry-Prime and Rod Mack will head to a runoff since no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote. Cherry-Prime got about 46% of the vote, while Mack got about 40%. A third candidate, Angela Maria Wynter, earned about 14% of the vote.

Cherry-Prime is a teacher in the Miami-Dade County Public School system and a business owner. Mack is a former University of Miami Hurricanes football player and a community advocate.

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