Jesse Scheckner
Natalie Milian Orbis is leaving the government of West Miami, where she serves as Vice Mayor, for a seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
Milian Orbis, 38, was one of two people who applied to replace Kevin Marino Cabrera on the 13-member panel after Cabrera resigned for a job as President Donald Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Panama.
She’ll serve the remaining 18 months of Cabrera’s term.
The other candidate, former Miami Springs Mayor Maria Mitchell, withdrew from contention last week.
Commissioners voted 9-3 Tuesday to appoint Milian Orbis, who has served on the West Miami Commission since January 2024.
She also serves as Director of the county’s Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board, a position she must give up, along with her city post, to take her seat at County Hall.
County records show she filed paperwork April 14 to run for what is now her District 6 seat.
Milian Orbis told reporters that it is “an honor to be able to serve.”
“I feel blessed to have this opportunity,” she said, according to the Miami Herald.
After the vote, she was quickly sworn in and took her seat on the dais.
Milian Orbis carries nearly two decades of county government work into her new role. She began as a legislative aide to former Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, whom Cabrera succeeded in 2022.
She later worked for other board members, including former Commissioners Joe Martinez and Juan Zapata.
Her husband, Manuel Orbis, was Cabrera’s Chief of Staff. He left shortly after Cabrera’s resignation for a job under county Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez.
Milian Orbis initially took her West Miami Commission post by appointment at the beginning of last year. She won a full, four-year term in August by 28 votes, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
District 6 covers a Hispanic-majority area of Miami-Dade covering all or part of Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami, Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens and West Miami.
The district leans heavily conservative. Milian Orbis is a Republican, as is Cabrera.
Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez and Vice Chair Kionne McGhee, a Republican and Democrat, respectively, both voted for Milian Orbis’ appointment. So too did Democratic members Marleine Bastien, Danielle Cohen Higgins, Oliver Gilbert III and Keon Hardemon and Republican members Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Bermudez, Rob Gonzalez and Raquel Regalado.
Republican René García and Democrats Eileen Higgins and Micky Steinberg voted “no” because they supported holding an election for the District 6 seat instead.
The Miami-Dade Commission is technically nonpartisan.
