Three candidates compete for Miami Beach's county commission seat in Aug. 18 primary

Miami Beach residents will choose who represents them on the Miami-Dade County Commission on Aug. 18, with early voting open at two local sites and three candidates offering sharply different visions for housing, taxes and public safety in District 5.

Incumbent Commissioner Vicki Lopez, former Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez and retired U.S. Marine Major Rob Piper are competing for the seat that covers South Beach, Mid Beach, Brickell, Downtown Miami, Little Havana and several other neighborhoods.

The race is nonpartisan. If no candidate clears 50%, the top two advance to a Nov. 3 runoff.

Where to vote early

Two Miami Beach locations are open through Sunday, Aug. 16:

Miami Beach City Hall — 1700 Convention Center Drive
North Shore Branch Library — 7501 Collins Ave.

Hours vary by day: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Monday, Aug. 10–14, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Saturday, Aug. 15–16.

The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Friday, Aug. 7. All mail ballots must arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Aug. 18.

The candidates

Vicki Lopez, 68 — appointed to the seat in November 2025 after Eileen Higgins left to become Miami's mayor. A former Republican state representative, Lopez authored the Live Local Act and led condo safety legislation after the 2021 Surfside collapse. Her campaign has raised more than $267,000 and she holds endorsements from all six Miami Beach commissioners, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz and several labor unions including Miami Beach IAFF Local 1510.

Lopez told Local 10 on Tuesday, Aug. 4, that housing affordability has worsened since she took office. "We need to find ways in which we incentivize developers to build both senior housing and more workforce housing," she said.

Joe Sanchez, 61 — a retired Florida Highway Patrol officer who served as a Miami city commissioner from 1998 to 2009. He ran for Miami-Dade sheriff in 2024. His campaign has raised $76,000, and he is focused on public safety, property tax relief and ending no-bid county contracts.

Rob Piper, 54 — a retired Marine who served 23 years including three combat tours in Iraq, then earned a doctorate in international relations from Florida International University in 2023. His campaign has raised just over $2,000 but picked up endorsements from the Miami Herald editorial board on July 17 and the Miami-Dade Democratic Party on July 15.

Housing: the top issue

All three candidates say housing affordability is the district's biggest problem, according to Axios Miami. They differ on solutions.

Lopez wants to redefine how the county calculates income limits for affordable housing projects, arguing that wealthy neighborhoods like Brickell skew the numbers upward for working-class areas like Little Havana. Sanchez proposes incentivizing landlords to charge affordable rents. Piper wants a 1% tax on luxury development, a county-owned public bank to finance affordable housing and expanded Community Land Trusts.

Piper and Sanchez have both criticized Lopez for authoring the Live Local Act, which allows developers to bypass local zoning if projects include workforce housing units. All three oppose moving Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary to build on rural land near the Everglades.

The budget squeeze ahead

Whoever wins will face a looming fiscal challenge. Florida's Amendment 3, on the November ballot, would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. State economists project that would cut Miami-Dade's annual property tax revenue by $445 million starting in Fiscal Year 2028-29.

Piper opposes the amendment, saying it fails to distinguish between longtime homeowners and wealthier newcomers. His platform includes a county Climate Resiliency Board to fund drainage and flood protection infrastructure, a direct concern for Miami Beach. Sanchez supports property tax relief broadly but wants to pair it with eliminating government waste.