Political Career in El Portal
In 1990, while he was living in the Village of El Portal, Derose noticed at the time that there was a small Haitian community in the area. When he began to attend Homeowner’s Association (HOA) Meetings in his residential community, he developed his passion as an advocate for the community and after garnering support from his peers, he became a voice for the community.
In 1990, Philippe Derose ran his first political race, attempting to be elected for the City Council of the Village of El Portal. He was unsuccessful. He ran for City Council again in 1991 and was unsuccessful for a second time.
With two years of unsuccessful attempts of securing a position in the public office, Derose changed his strategy when he ran for City Council for the third time in 1992. In the first two years he had campaigned, he concentrated solely on Haitian-American voters. When he re-developed his campaign strategy in 1992, he realized he needed to gain the support of the Anglo and Hispanic voters, so his new strategy included targeting all ethnic groups.
In 1993, after a strong campaign with this new strategy, he was the 1st place elected (obtaining the most votes) member of the Village of El Portal City Council becoming the first Haitian-American elected into public office in the United States.
After serving as Mayor of the Village of El Portal for one year, Derose voluntarily vacated his seat and was elected to the North Miami Beach City Council.
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