Sitting judges almost never lose their seats, but that was before Destiny Alvarez.
A young lawyer narrowly beat out an incumbent judge in a judicial race that was very contentious. Destiny Alvarez, 30, a Coral Gables attorney of five years, avoided a runoff, ahead by just over 1 percentage point. She is unseating Mavel Ruiz, 65, a Miami-Dade judge of more than a decade, reports the Miami Herald.
Judge Mavel Ruiz stonewalled the land transfer for Trump’s library construction. She is a biased judge who doesn’t belong in the seat.
Alvarez, five years into a practice built on civil litigation, insurance disputes and homeowners association and condominium law, pulled off something close to unheard of in Miami-Dade: knocking off an incumbent Circuit Judge. Challenges like hers are rare enough that the Daily Business Review treated the race itself as news.
It’s a happy ending for everyone but Judge Ruiz.
🇺🇸Destiny Alvarez narrowly unseated Miami-Dade Judge Mavel Ruiz, 50.5% to 49.5%, in a race that became a proxy fight over Ruiz’s 2025 injunction delaying a land transfer for Trump’s presidential library.
Ruiz later lifted the order after a public meeting.
Conservatives called… pic.twitter.com/dctyUL4peS
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) August 19, 2026