Mike Redondo tops South Florida state incumbents with $450K haul in Q1 for HD 118 defense

Rep. Mike Redondo spent the first quarter of 2026 stacking cash to ensure that all who challenge him for his House District 118 seat this year will face a steep financial battle.

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, the Miami Republican amassed $450,000 between his campaign account and political committee, The Right Path for Florida. It’s the biggest haul of any member of the Legislature seeking re-election in South Florida.

He also spent $207,000, roughly half of which went to the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee. Last July, Redondo unanimously won a race to lead his party in the chamber after the 2030 election.

Political committees accounted for the largest share of contributions he received last quarter — $169,000, or more than a third of all funds raised.

That included $20,000 from a political committee previously chaired by Florida GOP Executive Director Bill Helmich called Citizens for Principled Leadership; $15,000 from The Southern Group, Protecting Florida’s Homeowners and Florida Justice PAC, the latter of which represents the interests of trial and personal injury lawyers; and $10,000 apiece from Florida Partners, Florida Farmers, Committee for a Greater Miami, IMPACT, Associated Industries of Florida and Excellent Public Schools PAC, the latter of which backs charter school and school-choice initiatives with funding from billionaires Ken Griffin and Reed Hastings, among others.

Redondo also received $40,000 from tobacco giant Reynolds, $35,000 from Slide Insurance, which assumed nearly 456,000 policies state-run Citizens dropped in 2025, and $12,500 from Luckyland, a casino chain whose Virtual Gaming Worlds parent company is headquartered in Australia.

From the health care sector, Tennessee-based Recovery Solutions gave $10,000; the Florida Surgical Alliance contributed $7,500; Tenet Health and Aqua Dermatology Management gave $5,000; and AbbVie and Hims Inc. each chipped in $2,500.

Duke Energy donated $11,000. West Coast University, American Traffic Solutions, for-profit prison company The GEO Group and gun manufacturer SIG Sauer each gave $10,000.

Traffic enforcement company Blue Line Solutions kicked in $6,500.

Billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross gave $10,000 through two of his real estate development companies.

Other real estate businesses — including PHR Investments, Southern Oak Management and Fernwood Management — gave $5,000 each.

Aside from the Florida GOP contribution, Redondo gave $1,000 to the re-election campaigns of state Rep. Randy Maggard of Dade City and Miami-Dade County Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez, and to Miami-Dade Commissioner Vicki Lopez, who raised nearly $589,000 last quarter to keep the seat she was appointed to in November.

Lopez vacated her seat representing House District 113 to take the County Commission post. Nearly five months later, Gov. Ron DeSantis still hasn’t called a Special Election to replace her there.

Redondo also paid nearly $75,000 to Tallahassee-based Capital Resources LLC for various consulting services and almost $15,000 to Coral Gables-based Fiore CPA for accounting services.

The rest of his spending covered staff costs, subscription fees, legal services, bank fees and donation-processing fees.

He entered April with more than $1.3 million on hand.

Redondo is no longer running unopposed, Division of Elections records show, though it remains to be seen how formidable his challenger is — or if he’ll stay in the race.

Marco Insua, who re-registered from independent to Republican in 2022, filed to run in HD 118 last month. Despite filing March 10, he had not yet filed a campaign finance report for Q1 by the state’s Friday deadline.

Redondo won his HD 118 seat in a 2023 Special Election with close to 52% of the vote. He won a full, two-year term the following year by a 36.6-percentage-point margin.

HD 118 covers a narrow, unincorporated strip of South Miami-Dade west of Florida’s Turnpike between Sweetwater and Cutler Bay.

The Primary is Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.