Miami-Dade commission appoints GOP lawmaker to open seat, rejecting election

In a close vote Tuesday, Miami-Dade County commissioners appointed a Republican state lawmaker to an empty board seat instead of calling a special election to fill the vacancy.

Rep. Vicki Lopez, a second-term member of the Florida House who has focused on condo reform, secured the county’s District 5 seat in a 7-5 vote. The seat representing parts of Miami and Miami Beach was vacated earlier this month by Eileen Higgins, a Democrat now running for mayor of the city of Miami.

“I see an empty seat,” Commissioner Keon Hardemon said before voting with the majority to appoint Lopez. “An empty seat leaves a major hole in any organization.”

Miami-Dade’s charter allows commissioners to either appoint someone to a vacant seat or allow voters to do it, and this is the third time in five years that commissioners opted to make the pick themselves.

Commissioner Kionne McGhee had called for a special election to happen early next year, but the legislation that was needed to send the decision to voters didn’t make it on Tuesday’s agenda under Chair Anthony Rodriguez, a top Lopez champion.

Rodriguez also refused to let McGhee, the board’s vice chair, introduce the legislation on the spot. “You’re not recognized, Mr. Vice Chair,” Rodriguez said.

Joining McGhee in voting against the Lopez appointment were Commissioners Juan Carlos Bermudez, René Garcia, Raquel Regalado and Micky Steinberg.

Even in casting his no vote, McGhee praised Lopez as a strong leader on criminal-justice reform and other issues. “What brings us here today is not about who gets to fill the seat,” McGhee said. “It’s about who gets to choose.”

Lopez’s appointment shifts the partisan balance of the 13-member board to give Republicans a one-member advantage, though commission seats are officially nonpartisan. The push to appoint Lopez was bipartisan too, with Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, a Democrat, making the motion to name her to the seat.

Under the charter, Lopez will still have to face voters in August — the first countywide election after her appointment — in order to keep the seat. If a special election had been held, the winner would have served until 2028, the end of the second term that Higgins abandoned to comply with Florida’s resign-to-run law.

In the Florida House, Lopez, 67, represented District 113, which overlaps with the bulk of the Miami portion of District 5. Miami-Dade’s District 5 includes that city’s Little Havana neighborhood and also crosses Biscayne Bay to include Miami Beach’s South Beach and parts of the city’s Mid Beach neighborhood, too. As the new District 5 commissioner, Lopez now represents tony Fisher Island, the Brickell office district and downtown’s high-rise corridor, plus the middle-class neighborhoods of Silver Bluff and Shenandoah.

In picking Lopez, commissioners selected a moderate Republican who has pushed for state legislation to ease financial requirements for condominium associations. She’s been involved in crafting legislation to lower property taxes as Gov. Ron DeSantis readies a statewide referendum campaign to cut them drastically — a move that county leaders say would devastate Miami-Dade’s budget.

In the 1990s, she was a member of the Lee County Commission in the Fort Myers area. Prosecutors secured a prison sentence for Lopez for alleged fraud, but in the appeals process, a judge ruled that she had been wrongly convicted.

Lopez, who was in Tallahassee during the county meeting, was one of five people to apply for the commission appointment, a list that included former District 5 County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro; former Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez; former Miami Beach City Commissioner David Richardson; and Tony Diaz, who owns a horticultural business.

Sanchez spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and urged commissioners to hold an election. “It’s about respecting the voices of the people,” he said.

In voting against the Lopez appointment, Regalado faulted Higgins for not resigning well ahead of the Nov. 4 Election Day. If she had given up her District 5 seat earlier, Higgins could have allowed commissioners to schedule a special election to coincide with that day’s elections in Miami and Miami Beach, avoiding the cost of a standalone special election. “An election doesn’t have to cost money,” Regalado said.

Rodriguez said opting against a one-off special election is the more democratic option, given that turnout will almost certainly be significantly higher in August, when Florida voters will be selecting nominees for governor.

“I am going to be supporting the appointment ... and that is supporting democracy,” Rodriguez said, arguing that a special election would likely be decided by a much smaller number of District 5 votes than what will be cast in August. “I am giving, with my vote, the constituents of District 5 a voice in their representative for the next three years.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 4:01 PM.