Jesse Scheckner
Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez just clinched a second term representing House District 113 in Miami-Dade County.
With early votes fully tallied, mail-in ballots partially counted and all 41 precincts reporting Tuesday, Lopez had 55% of the vote to defeat Democrat Jackie Gross-Kellogg, who faced an uphill battle against a well-funded incumbent.
Lopez leaned on her record of accomplishments, legislative backbone and gargantuan funding advantage to while campaigning this cycle. Gross-Kellogg, meanwhile, hoped unflattering recent press about Lopez and the district’s historically left-leaning electoral tendencies would deliver her an upset.
As Election Day neared, it became one of the most-watched House contests this cycle.
HD 113 spans a coastal, center-east portion of the county, covering Key Biscayne and parts of Coral Gables and Miami. It contains Virginia Key and PortMiami, one of Miami-Dade’s top two economic engines.
Voters in the district picked Joe Biden by 11.5 points in 2020, but swung for Gov. Ron DeSantis two years later by 5.5 points. In early October, registered Republicans overtook Democrats in the district by 276 voters, a 0.3-point advantage.
Lopez, 66, won by 2 points in 2022 to flip the long-blue seat red and has proven an effective, moderate policymaker since. In her freshman House term, she passed well over half her bills, including 75% of those she carried this past Session.
Some were ambitious proposals. She was the House sponsor for 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.
She also tackled the thankless task of fixing the state’s post-Surfside condo safety law, which still needs more work, and created a pilot program that extended home-hardening grants to condo owners.
Her legislative victories, including nearly $26 million in appropriations, came despite her votes against her party’s draconian six-week abortion ban and proposal to roll back age restrictions on long rifle purchases the Legislature passed after the 2018 Parkland massacre.
Gross-Kellogg, the 56-year-old President of the Key Biscayne Dems, was a late entrant this cycle. She carried a comparatively meager war chest and was largely left to fend for herself until just over a month from Election Day as the state and local Democratic parties poured resources into other races they viewed as more winnable.
House Republicans and Lopez poured big bucks into defending her seat through TV attack ads and a flood of mailers, some of which went to Democrats in the district, depicting her as a “Blue Dog Progressive.”
A nearly lifelong resident of Key Biscayne, Gross-Kellogg was hardly the “radical” some of the ads labeled her to be. Her campaign priorities included reviving the health of Biscayne Bay, tackling property insurance issues, protecting reproductive rights (if Amendment 4 fails) and investing in public schools.
She hoped to raise the minimum wage, make it easier for people to vote, pass “common-sense” gun control measures and provide outdoor workers with heat protections.
Gross-Kellogg’s local involvements run deep. A former semi-pro soccer player, she co-founded the Key Biscayne Soccer Club and the nonprofit Friends of Gables High to refurbish her alma mater. She also held an elected role with a local PTSA and today works as the program coordinator for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center.
She raised about $55,500 since filing in late May, spending all but $6,000 of it through mid-October, mostly on advertising, texts and mailers. After months of sitting the race out, the Florida Democratic Party threw her $1,000 worth of in-kind aid for “data services” in late September. It spent another $5,200 on her through the end of October to cover the cost of phone banking, texting, digital ads, email services and insurance.
Lopez, conversely, raised nearly $1 million this cycle, spent $862,000 and received almost $88,000 worth of direct aid from the Florida GOP.
Lopez’s 2022 victory marked her first electoral win in decades. She served on the Lee County Commission in the 1990s, but resigned from her post and was convicted of honest services fraud in 1997, serving 15 months in federal prison before then-President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence. A federal Judge vacated the conviction 11 years later.
She turned her negative experience into positive action, working as an advocate in state-appointed roles for the better part of two decades, specializing in criminal justice reform, post-prison reentry.
Last month, she fell under new scrutiny after an investigative report by The Tributary revealed her connection to — and behind-the-scenes advocacy for — a school bus camera vendor she supported legislatively that employs her son and former stepson. Lopez hasn’t been accused of a crime. She said through a spokesperson that she consulted with House counsel after reporters contacted her about the matter and was advised that she did not have a conflict of interest.
The Miami Herald cited the report and Lopez’s actions in rescinding its endorsement of her and giving it instead to Gross-Kellogg.
