A North Miami mayoral candidate who earlier claimed she was being intimidated with voodoo tactics now says she's secured an endorsement from on high.
Anna Pierre, a registered nurse and one of seven candidates looking to become the city's mayor during Tuesday's election, is claiming she is being endorsed by Jesus Christ.
"Yes, Jesus endorsed me!" Pierre said during a stop at the Gwen Margolis Community Center Tuesday morning as the polls opened. "I'm not nuts, if I'm a freak and nuts for Jesus, let it be! Let the world know that Jesus is it and when you have Jesus on your side you can go on."
The claim was made on a campaign flyer posted to Pierre's Facebook page that reads "Anna Pierre, RN, is endorsed by Jesus Christ" and features a photo of the savior.
Pierre said the endorsement came to her in a revelation while on the campaign trail as she's been competing against six other candidates.
"I don't know about if he likes me more, but what I can tell you, I know he loves me very much," Pierre said. "If it wasnt for the love of Jesus I wouldn't be standing here today."
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In another South Florida municipal election on Tuesday, Isolina Marono defeated Deborah Centeno to win the Group 4 seat on the Sweetwater City Commission. Marono received 1,065 votes while Centeno had 406, according to unofficial Miami-Dade County Elections Department results.
Marono, the mother of Mayor Manny Marono, was appointed on an interim basis last year to fill the seat left vacant by the late Vice Mayor Ariel Abelairas, The Miami Herald reported. Her victory for a four-year term Tuesday came in the only contested election in Sweetwater, as commissioners Orlando Lopez (Group 1), Jose Bergouignan (Group 2) and Jose Diaz (Group 3) retained their seats without opposition.
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Last month in North Miami, Pierre, a Haitian native who recorded a hit pop song before coming to America, claimed someone had placed voodoo artifacts outside the door of her campaign office.
The items included candles, food and dolls with pins stuck in them, said Pierre, who believes one of her opponents may have been behind the intimidation.
"The voodoo stuff, I don't know who's doing it, but I'm not afraid," she said at the time. "It's just intimidation to ... slow me down. But you know what? I'm not going to slow down until the finish line."
Voters Tuesday remained slightly skeptical of the Jesus endorsement.
"Well, I thought 'I wonder if I ought to vote for this person to maintain the cosmic balance,'" Grover Rawlings said. "I mean, I want to stay on the good side, it's a pretty powerful endorsement if it's true."
Others took the self-proclaimed revelation sincerely.
"Well, like I said, I'm Christian and if she believes it, I've never heard it before, but you know, she could've been," Ann Simpson said.
Pierre is going up against fellow candidates Gwendolyn V. Boyd, Kevin Burns, Modira Escarment, Smith Joseph, Jean Rodrigue Marcellus and Lucie M. Tondreau.
Burns, a former mayor of the city, didn't have much to say about Pierre's Jesus claim.
"I can't even touch that one," he said.
Click here for City of North Miami Elections Department
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Photo Credit: NBC6.com