Miami-Dade voters will soon see TV ads and online spots with County Commissioner Vicki Lopez highlighting her policymaking work and pitching herself as the best choice for District 5 on the Aug. 18 ballot.
Lopez’s campaign just launched a five-figure, bilingual ad buy targeting voters in the district, which covers parts of Miami and Miami Beach.
They’re targeting voters with virtually identical 30-second spots in English and Spanish. In both, Lopez emphasizes her record as a state lawmaker and, since late last year, one of 13 Miami-Dade Commissioners.
“In Tallahassee, I fought hard to take on affordability challenges and deliver infrastructure funding to improve our neighborhoods,” she says in the video.
“Now, as your County Commissioner, I’m focused on what matters most: keeping our waterways clean, supporting small businesses and moving faster on affordable housing. I’m not waiting to get started; I’m already on the job.”
During her first term, she secured nearly $47 million in appropriations while creating a pilot program that extended home-hardening grants to condo owners, passing post-Surfside condo safety legislation and successfully carrying the House version of the Live Local Act, a seismic measure meant to address Florida’s affordable housing shortage that critics argued preempted local growth controls while giving too much to developers.
In 2025, she passed 10 of 12 bills she sponsored, including measures on boating safety and regulation, school social workers, workforce housing provisions, and updates to her condo safety law and condo-hardening program.
The Miami-Dade Commission voted 7-5 in mid-November to appoint her to fill the panel’s District 5 seat, which Democrat Eileen Higgins vacated to serve as Miami Mayor.
Lopez faces two challengers: fellow Republican Joe Sanchez, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and former Miami City Commissioner who ran unsuccessfully Sheriff in 2024, and Democratic Rob Piper, a Marine Corps veteran who led a 2020 recall PAC targeting former Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and was one of eight candidates who ran for the City Commission last year.
Sanchez was one of a few applicants vying for the District 5 seat Lopez took last year. Piper previously worked as a Florida House staffer.
Because County Commission contests are technically nonpartisan, all three candidates will appear on the Aug. 18 Primary ballot.
To win, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate in a given race does so, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the Nov. 3 General Election.
