{"id":107393,"date":"2026-01-06T10:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/107393\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:26:13","slug":"johanna-lopez-decides-against-re-election-in-tallahassee-filing-for-orange-county-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/107393\/","title":{"rendered":"Johanna L\u00f3pez decides against re-election in Tallahassee, filing for Orange County Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Johanna L\u00f3pez<\/a> said she is not running for re-election in Tallahassee but turning her sights on the Orange County Board of Commissioners instead.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez, an Orlando Democrat, was first elected to the House in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that if I was successful in representing the voice of my constituents at a school board level, at the state level, I think that I could do the same thing here in Orange County,\u201d she told Florida Politics in an interview ahead of a Tuesday press conference announcing the decision. \u201cI have proven results and I\u2019m always available to listen and to grow with my community. It\u2019s not about Johanna L\u00f3pez, it\u2019s about my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only other competition so far for Orange County\u2019s District 4 is telecommunications professional Brian Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez is endorsing Orange County Democratic Chair Samuel Vilchez Santiago to run for her House District 43 seat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the right person to represent District 43,\u201d L\u00f3pez said of Vilchez Santiago, her former student she taught in high school. \u201cSamuel has his heart in the right place. He\u2019s committed.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez said she had always eyed the Orange County Commission but saw the opportunity unfold now so she could avoid challenging an incumbent since District 4 is an open race.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez said she believes she can make more immediate difference locally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI receive a lot of calls to my office that are more related to commissioners than to state representatives,\u201d said L\u00f3pez, who lives in the Econ neighborhood.<\/p>\n

What also appealed to her was the non-partisan role of a county commissioner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to represent everybody, and we don\u2019t run as a Democrat or Republican. We run as a candidate that has to represent the voice of their constituents, not the voice of the party,\u201d L\u00f3pez said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s that that\u2019s something that really attracted me to the commissioner\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

A County Commissioner\u2019s current annual salary is $130,262.<\/p>\n

If elected, L\u00f3pez said she wants to fight for more resources for her district. For instance, she said there is no cultural center in her community. She also said her priorities included improving infrastructure, smart growth, helping small business owners and affordable housing. She also wants to improve the neighborhood by dealing with abandoned buildings.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez made headlines in Central Florida on her rise from becoming Orange County\u2019s Teacher of the Year in 2016 to becoming the first Latina elected<\/a> to the Orange County School Board in 2018. The Puerto Rico native has shared her story of how she overcame great odds as a single mother of four and a domestic violence survivor to become a public official.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly believe that most of the challenges that I also faced helped me to understand more of my community,\u201d L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Johanna L\u00f3pez said she is not running for re-election in Tallahassee but turning her sights on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[55043,6479,4775,55044,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-107393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-brian-jones","tag-johanna-lopez","tag-orange-county-board-of-commissioners","tag-samuel-vilchez-santiago","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}