Jacob Ogles
Rep. Lauren Melo has officially filed as a candidate to succeed Sen. Kathleen Passidomo in Senate District 28. The Naples Republican, long expected to run for the open seat in 2026, formally filed on Tuesday.
Melo currently serves as Chair of the House Human Services Subcommittee. She jumped into the race weeks ahead of the 2025 Legislative Session, allowing a head start on fundraising early in the election cycle.
Melo has long been seen as Passidomo’s favored successor for the Naples-based Senate seat. The Representative first won election to the House in 2020, but had not filed for re-election to her House District 82 seat, further fueling speculation. Now, it’s official that she wants to move to the upper chamber, where Passidomo, a former Senate President, cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
Importantly, the Friends of Lauren Melo political committee closed 2024 with nearly $277,000 cash on hand, giving Melo a solid war chest. That’s important because she is throwing her hat in the ring after former Rep. Bob Rommel, a Naples Republican, spent more than two years amassing his own massive resources to run for the seat as well.
But Melo brings a strong legislative record, most recently serving as the driving force within the Legislature for putting a successful Right to Hunt & Fish amendment on the 2024 ballot.
She has also worked extensively on workforce education issues since her arrival in the House.
Melo, a Realtor and professional motocross racer, won her 2020 Republican Primary against two other candidates, Drew Montez-Clark and Victor Dotres. She won a General Election that year over Democrat Laura Novosad with 64% of the vote.
Melo won re-election in 2022 in the redrawn HD 82 without opposition. In 2024, she defeated Democrat Arthur Oslund with nearly 70% of the vote.
Passidomo in 2022 won re-election without opposition. More than 65% of voters in the district in 2024 supported Republican Donald Trump for President, with less than 34% supporting Democrat Kamala Harris. And that largely aligns with the district’s deep shade of red. More than half the district’s voters are registered to the GOP, while fewer than 22% are Democrats, according to the most recent L2 voter data.
