Destiny Alvarez is running to supplant the Judge who last year oversaw a court challenge to Miami Dade College’s land transfer for a Donald Trump presidential library. And it looks like Alvarez has surpassed the incumbent in fundraising.

It took her just one month, according to her campaign.

Alvarez, a lawyer who today works as Managing Partner at Coral Gables law firm Goede DeBoest & Cross, announced Friday that she has raised more than $100,000 since filing to challenge Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz.

Official campaign finance reports for the second quarter of 2026 — which began April 1, the same day Alvarez filed — aren’t due until June 10.

Alvarez’s campaign declared the early fundraising milestone evidence of “a growing coalition of community leaders, legal professionals, and residents who are rallying behind (her) vision for a fair, efficient, and community-focused court system.”

“From day one, this campaign has been about restoring trust, strengthening our courts, and ensuring every person who walks into a courtroom is treated with fairness and respect,” Alvarez said in a statement.

“This is about building a movement of people who believe our courts should be accessible, responsive, and grounded in the community they serve. We are just getting started.”

State records show Alvarez, a 30-year-old Republican, was registered to vote alternately in Collier and Alachua counties until at least 2024, after which she changed her voting address to Miami.

Her work history, listed on her campaign website and LinkedIn page, shows she has worked for Goede DeBoest & Cross since 2022. She became Managing Partner in October.

She previously worked as an associate attorney at GrayRobinson from 2020 to 2022. Before that, she was a gubernatorial fellow at the Florida Department of Transportation, a Summer associate at GrayRobinson, a judicial extern under federal Judge Amanda Sansone of Tampa and President of Florida Blue Key, a student leadership honor society at the University of Florida, her alma mater.

Alvarez is challenging Ruiz, who made headlines in October — and Florida Politics’ list of the top 10 political stories from South Florida in 2025 — after she temporarily blocked Miami Dade College’s transfer of prime downtown land for a planned Trump library.

Ruiz ultimately dismissed the case in December after the school’s Board of Trustees held a publicly noticed vote on the matter.

But last month, an appellate panel found Ruiz showed bias toward the plaintiff in the case, local activist and historian Marvin Dunn, by hugging him after the December hearing and appearing to thank him for filing his complaint. Ruiz had also shaken hands with lawyers on both sides of the case before she “briefly hugged” Dunn, a sworn declaration by Dunn said.

The hug, among other things, prompted lawyers for the Board of Trustees to file a motion seeking Ruiz’s self-removal from the case, which Ruiz denied. Part of the motion, Law.com reported, included comments by Ruiz alluding to Dunn’s mortgaging of a home to pay the $150,000 bond required to initially block the land transfer.

“It is unclear how exactly Judge Ruiz became aware of Dunn’s mortgage,” read a footnote to Miami Dade College’s writ of prohibition seeking Ruiz’s exclusion in future matters involving the library transfer, which Attorney General James Uthmeier and Solicitor General David Dewhirst supported, according to Law.com.

A per curiam panel opinion signed by Judges Ivan Fernandez, Monic Gordo and Thomas Logue said evidence of bias was “legally sufficient to create in a reasonably prudent person a well-founded fear that they would not receive a fair hearing before the judge.” The panel also said Ruiz should not be the one to hear a motion for reconsideration Dunn filed.

Ruiz defeated an incumbent by about 9 percentage points in 2014 to win her seat. She won re-election in 2020 by a 10-point margin.

In 2019, she was among five Judges who were reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court for signing a letter during a state procurement process that endorsed a private contractor. The court found they improperly lent the prestige of their offices and created the appearance of impropriety.

The Judges acknowledged the conduct crossed ethical lines.

Ruiz reported raising close to $70,000 since filing for the 2026 cycle last July. All of her gains came from lawyers and law firms.

Donors included law firm Greenberg Traurig; North Miami City Manager Theresa Therilus; lawyer Anita Margot Moss, who represented former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick the early stages of an investigation that led to the lawmaker’s resignation last month; and lawyer Harley Tropin, who led a nearly $1 billion recovery following the 2021 condo collapse in Surfside.

Judicial contests are technically nonpartisan, and with just two candidates on the ballot for the Group 67 race, the winner is on track to be decided in the Aug. 18 Primary.

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