Kevin Cooper 2026: Moral hero or opportunist using a scandal to cover up his down year and eliminate rivals? A full year of no real activism for the midterms
Miami, March 24, 2026 – Mary Anna Mancuso’s op-ed column in the March 23 Miami Herald attempts to paint Kevin Cooper, chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, as a courageous leader “course correcting” the party by repudiating racism and anti-Semitism in the wake of the Abel Carvajal WhatsApp chat scandal.
The reality is much more uncomfortable.
Cooper is not leading a major ideological cleansing. He is taking advantage of a disgusting scandal to clean up his own image after a highly questioned 2025 and, in the process, get one of his main internal critics out of the way.
A full year of no real activism for the 2026 midterm elections
Since taking office in December 2024, Cooper has been heavily criticized by the local MAGA base for a total lack of concrete activism. No aggressive voter registration strategy, grassroots organizing or serious preparation for the 2026 midterm elections has been seen. Nice events, photos with national figures and speeches… but little street work and zero visible energy to defend the Trump administration on the ground.
While Democrats in Miami-Dade are already actively organizing for the midterm elections, the Miami-Dade GOP under Cooper seems more concerned with controlling internal meetings than taking to the streets to confront the left’s narrative. The rank and file is asking: where is the real ground game? So far, it has only seen inactivity disguised as “strategic leadership.”
The photo with Trump: real meeting or pure optics like so many others?
The Herald article opens with an image of Kevin Cooper standing next to President Donald Trump. It is a photo that is frequently used to give the impression of closeness and strong support. The question many rank-and-file Republicans are asking is clear: is this a photo of a substantial and recent encounter or just one more of the many photo occasions that many local chairmen use to project image?
So far, Cooper has shown more skill at photo-op than generating real activism in defense of the agenda. It’s the same pattern of many local leaders: photo op with Trump for the cover and then operative silence.
Total silence on “No Kings” protests on March 28th
This Saturday, March 28, “No Kings” demonstrations will take place nationwide, including several in the Miami and Miami Beach area. These protests, organized against what the left calls the Trump administration’s “authoritarian policies,” seek to fill the streets with anti-Trump messages and are already confirmed in more than 100 locations in Florida alone.
Where is the response from Kevin Cooper and the Miami-Dade Republican Party? So far, zero strong statements, zero call for counter-demonstrations and zero visible organized Republican presence. Once again, you see only the left openly attacking the Trump administration in the streets, while the local party is conspicuous by its absence.
This is not leadership. It is absolute passivity at a time when the Republican base expects the party to come out and defend its positions with the same force it uses to condemn internal chatter.
The convenient removal of Abel Carvajal
Abel Carvajal was not “just any secretary”. He was an avowed political rival. Since mid-2025, Carvajal and his circle had clashed head-on with Cooper. There were heated debates and, according to previous leaked chats, there was already open talk of challenging and removing Cooper as chairman.
When the chat explodes in March 2026 – with over 400 uses of the N-word, Nazi jokes and violent fantasies – Cooper reacts with nuclear speed: “Anyone associated must resign NOW”. Initiates removal process and calls special meeting. Carvajal resigns hours before the vote. Problem solved on two fronts: he cleans the party of an indefensible scandal and removes his most vocal critic from the board.
Hollow” leadership throughout 2025
Executive Committee meetings are the perfect example: the last properly noticed and productive meeting was in August 2025. Since then, last minute notices, endless time-consuming speeches, voice votes instead of actual count, and adjournment motions every time an objection arose. Result: no real debate, no reform and no accountability.
The MAGA base calls it “hollow leadership.” Some local activists have gone so far as to call on state leadership to investigate for possible conscious sabotage of the party in Florida’s largest county.
Conclusion without anesthesia
Kevin Cooper demonstrated speed and toughness only when it came to taking down a political rival embroiled in an indefensible scandal. However, that same energy has not been seen in the actual preparation for the 2026 midterms, in the public defense of the Trump agenda or in the response to the “No Kings” protests coming up this weekend.
While the Herald celebrates him as an example of “course correction,” the Miami-Dade Republican base is still waiting for real activism, transparency in meetings and visible leadership on the street.
So far, what has been seen is more image, photos with Trump and internal control than concrete results.
The party in Florida’s most important county deserves much more than opportunistic moral statements when there are demonstrations against its President and zero organized response.
Is Kevin Cooper ready to lead for real… or does he only know how to clean up his own backyard when it suits him?
The base is watching. And March 28 is going to be one more test of whether this “new course” is real or just another pretty picture.
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