Herald endorsement: Miami-Dade County Commission District 5 | Opinion

In the Aug. 18 nonpartisan primary for Miami-Dade County Commission District 5, two challengers will run against an incumbent who was appointed to the seat last year, former Republican state Rep. Vicki Lopez. She faces retired Florida Highway Patrol officer Joe Sanchez, who’s a former Miami city commissioner, and retired U.S. Marine Major Rob Piper.

Lopez and Sanchez have track records in public service and their knowledge about local policy is extensive, but we endorse Piper, who’s never held public office but has been involved as an activist in Miami politics. He ran for the Miami City Commission last year and led a recall effort against former Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo in 2020.

Piper, 54, is the underdog in District 5, which covers parts of Miami Beach and Miami, including downtown. His campaign raised just over $2,000 — Sanchez raised $76,000 and Lopez raked in more than $267,000.

In an interview with the Herald Editorial Board, Piper came across as a regular person, a critical thinker with a deep understanding of constituents. He’s not a practiced politician and appears committed to serve.

After spending 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and doing three combat tours in Iraq, he retired in 2016. He said he “just felt compelled to serve some more,” starting in his Shenandoah neighborhood as a president of his own political club and then as a district leader for the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee. In 2023, he got a doctorate in international relations at Florida International University.

Piper is untested in politics and would have a bigger learning curve but, he said, “I know in the Marine Corps, my commanders always asked me tough questions, and they knew when I was BS-ing them. So I took that skill with me, and I’ll bring that with me when I’m on the dais.”

He said he’s challenging Lopez because “I don’t trust Commissioner Lopez to do the right thing unless it’s politically convenient.” Piper and Sanchez criticized her for sponsoring the Live Local Act when she was a lawmaker. The law allows developers to bypass local zoning controls if their projects include workforce housing units. Piper called it a “gift to developers.” Lopez said the law was a “very good bill to address the housing crisis across the state.”

All the candidates acknowledged that housing affordability is the biggest issue facing District 5. Piper said he wants to enable nonprofit developers to build more housing and continue to give landlords incentives to renovate older properties.

Piper said he opposes moving the county’s Urban Development Boundary to build more homes on rural land and on the edges of the Everglades — a position he shares with his opponents. He’s against the property tax cuts that will be on the November ballot because the measure doesn’t distinguish between longtime homeowners and newer, wealthier arrivals.

His biggest challenge would be addressing expected future budget deficits in Miami-Dade. While he said the county should continue to fund nonprofits that provide crucial services for vulnerable residents, and he believes in auditing budget expenditures, Piper needs to become better versed on the issue.

Sanchez, 61, was a Miami commissioner from 1998 to 2009 and ran for Miami-Dade sheriff in 2024. He has lived in the area for 55 years, he said, and has experience advocating for issues, starting with his homeowners’ association in The Roads. “I’ve served this community for so many years... I believe that I could represent this community and do a good job,” he said. Among his proposals: ending no-bid contracts in county government.

Lopez, 68, was an effective state House member and the go-to lawmaker on condo reform after the Surfside collapse in 2021. But we criticized her appointment to the commission to fill a vacancy because her fellow commissioners should have called a special election.

Lopez is the most knowledgeable about housing policy and said she’s working to change how affordable housing is defined because income limits projects in working-class communities such as Little Havana are often skewed by wealthier nearby neighborhoods like Brickell.

In 2024, the Herald Editorial Board withdrew our endorsement of Lopez’s reelection to the Florida House. A story published by the news outlet The Tributary detailed how Lopez was a co-sponsor of a bill that benefited her family financially. Less than three months after a law went into effect allowing the use of traffic cameras on school buses, her son got a top job at BusPatrol, a school bus camera vendor. She has consistently denied doing anything unethical.

In the 1990s, Lopez resigned from the Lee County Commission and went to prison under the federal “honest services” mail-fraud statute. Her sentence was commuted and later vacated by the courts. She has said she was wrongfully convicted.

With three qualified candidates, our choice was not easy, but, in the end, we believe voters should elect a non-traditional candidate with a fresh take.

The Herald endorses ROB PIPER for Miami-Dade County Commission District 5.

This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 10:41 AM.