A Miami-Dade judge hugged the plaintiff in her own courtroom and appeared to thank him for filing suit.
Tuesday night, voters handed her a pink slip.
A 30-year-old Federalist Society attorney named Destiny Alvarez ended a decade-plus judicial career – and the only thing standing between her and the circuit bench now is a swearing-in ceremony.
The Judge Who Picked the Wrong Fight
Judge Mavel Ruiz had been on the Miami-Dade bench for more than a decade, coasting through elections the way incumbent judges always do in this county – barely opposed, barely noticed.
Then in October 2025, a left-wing historian named Marvin Dunn sued Miami Dade College over the transfer of a 2.6-acre downtown Miami property for Trump's $950 million presidential library.
Ruiz issued a temporary injunction – blocking the deal cold.
The move forced Miami Dade College trustees to redo their vote.
It stopped momentum.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2090083113632199013?s=20
It humiliated powerful people who had worked for months to get the library project moving.
Eventually, Ruiz dismissed the lawsuit after trustees held a properly noticed public meeting and reapproved the transfer.
But the political damage was done.
The Hug That Ended Her Career
Then Ruiz made it worse.
After a December hearing, an appellate panel found she had hugged Marvin Dunn – the plaintiff whose lawsuit she was presiding over – and appeared to thank him for bringing the suit.
The appeals court ruled she should be disqualified from any future litigation involving the library property.
The board had her removed from the case entirely.
In any other political climate, a veteran incumbent judge survives something like that.
This is not any other political climate.
A 30-Year-Old Took Her Seat
Destiny Alvarez had five years of civil litigation experience and a small practice in Coral Gables when she filed to challenge Ruiz.
Nobody took it seriously at first.
Then Trump-world money started flowing.
Christopher Kise – who served as one of Trump's defense attorneys – wrote a check.
Continental Strategy principals wrote checks.
Ballard Partners' Jose Felix Diaz wrote a check.
By June, Alvarez had raised nearly $160,000.
https://twitter.com/OwenGregorian/status/2090426641096823125?s=20
She landed endorsements from the Miami-Dade Fraternal Order of Police and the South Florida AFL-CIO at the same time – a combination almost unheard of in a judicial race.
Ruiz, meanwhile, was collecting endorsements from the Miami Herald and the Miami-Dade Democratic Socialists of America – and arriving at Election Night with a 2020 misconduct reprimand and two open elections complaints on her record.
In the campaign's final days, Ruiz sued her own challenger – claiming Alvarez was tied to a "network of politically affiliated persons" behind text messages that called the judge a "communist."
Alvarez's attorney called the lawsuit an abuse of power designed to silence "quintessential political opinion" protected by the First Amendment.
The threat didn't work.
Tuesday night, with all 767 precincts reporting, Alvarez took 50.46% of the vote to Ruiz's 49.54%.
Margin: 2,073 votes.
It was enough to clear the 50% threshold and skip a runoff.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier reacted Wednesday on X: "Great win for the rule of law!"
What Miami Just Told Every Judge in America
Ruiz didn't lose because she's incompetent.
https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2090140361771696428?s=20
She lost because voters watched a judge block Trump's presidential library – then hug the plaintiff and thank him for it – and decided she didn't deserve to keep her seat.
This is the accountability Democrats insist doesn't exist for judges.
Alvarez ran against an entrenched incumbent, in a nonpartisan race, in the county where Ruiz filed a defamation suit against her own challenger – and won anyway.
The message to every activist judge who thinks blocking Trump initiatives carries no political cost is simple: Mavel Ruiz thought the same thing.
Sources:
- Peter Schorsch, "A date with Destiny: Alvarez unseats the judge who blocked Trump's library," Florida Politics, August 19, 2026.
- Kennedy Owens, "Miami-Dade judge unseated after Trump library controversy," FL Voice News, August 19, 2026.
- Jim Hoft, "Vicious Left-Backed Judge Who BLOCKED Trump Presidential Library Is KICKED OFF THE BENCH," The Gateway Pundit, August 19, 2026.
- "Judge sides with Democrat historian to temporarily block Trump presidential library deal in Florida," Fox News, 2025.
- "Miami judge disqualified from Trump library case after courtroom hug," The Real Deal, May 1, 2026.
