Wayne Martin Messam (born June 7, 1974)[1] is a former American footballwide receiver, businessman, and politician serving as the mayor of Miramar, Florida, a position he has held since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the Miramar City Commission in 2011 before defeating incumbent mayor Lori Cohen Moseley in the 2015 election. Messam is also a general contractor and owner of a construction firm.
Messam was born in South Bay, Florida[4] to Delsey and Hubert, who had both emigrated from Jamaica.[4] When the family came to the United States, Hubert worked as a migrant farmer in the sugarcane fields of Florida's Glades region.[5]
After not being selected in the 1997 NFL draft, Messam signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent [10] and was released on August 4 of that year.[11]
Career
Messam started a construction company in 2007.[12] He was first elected to the City Commission of Miramar, Florida in 2011, and was elected as the city's mayor in 2015, defeating incumbent Lori Cohen Moseley and former vice mayor Alexandra Davis with 38.5% of the vote after vacating his commission seat.[13][14] He won re-election on March 12, 2019.[15]
Messam serves as president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials.[9]
2020 presidential campaign
In early 2019, some sources indicated that he was considering a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, which he neither confirmed nor denied, stating that "all options will remain on the table."[16][17] On March 13, 2019, he announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a potential run and formally announced his candidacy nine days later.[18][2]
His campaign received $43,531 in campaign donations in the first quarter of 2019. In April, he was accused of failing to pay his staff.[19] On June 28, he told Fortune Magazine that lack of money had kept his campaign from receiving national attention.[20]
Messam's third quarter fundraising report initially declared that he had received only $5 in income, and had spent $0. Messam claimed that the low amounts were attributable to a "computer glitch."[21][22][23] Messam later corrected these amounts to state that he had received $15,312 in income and spent $10,678 during the third quarter.[24] His year-end quarterly reports showed that between the beginning of the fourth quarter and the end of his campaign, Messam received no money in contributions.[25]
Messam suspended his presidential campaign on November 20, 2019.[3] He did not qualify for any Democratic debate and was not classified as a "major candidate" by outlets such as FiveThirtyEight.[26]
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