Spencer Fordin
Republican Rep. candidates Tom Fabricio and Nelson Rodriguez will square off in HD 103 Tuesday night for the opportunity to try to steal the seat from Democratic incumbent Cindy Polo in November.
Polo, who won the seat in 2018, is running unopposed on the Democratic side, and Fabricio and Rodriguez are the only other candidates running to represent the district. Fabricio, a lawyer, has led Rodriguez in both fundraising and in endorsements, and he earned a nod from former Senate President Mike Haridopolos last week.
Fabricio told FloridaPolitics he is running in HD 103 because it’s where he went to school and where he’s raising his family. His priorities are reducing traffic congestion and highway tolls. He has advocated ridesharing and hopes to pass legislation reducing the effects of rock mining blasting.
Rodriguez, the Vice Mayor of Miami Lakes, is a former firefighter and adjunct instructor at Miami Dade College. Polo defeated his predecessor, former Miami Lakes Vice Mayor Frank Mingo, by 6 percentage points to earn the HD 103 seat in 2018.
Mingo said last month he is backing Fabricio.
Sen. Manny Diaz, who held the seat before Polo, is also endorsing Fabricio.
Polo has been endorsed by the South Florida Council of Firefighters. She has raised slightly more than anyone in the race, but because she is running unopposed, she has been able to preserve most of it. Her electoral priorities include common sense gun reform, Medicaid expansion, immigrants rights and civil rights.
HD 103 covers parts of Miami Lakes and Doral in Miami-Dade County and also extends into Miramar in Broward County.
The district has a population of 156,000.
