{"id":252863,"date":"2026-04-30T19:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252863\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:18:14","slug":"south-florida-pba-backs-dedicated-vicki-lopez-for-miami-dade-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252863\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida PBA backs \u2018dedicated\u2019 Vicki Lopez for Miami-Dade Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicki Lopez is heading into May with a new endorsement from the South Florida Police Benevolent Association<\/a> (PBA).<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s campaign announced the new nod, which represents her first organizational endorsement in the 2026 contest.<\/p>\n

South Florida PBA President Steadman Stahl praised Lopez\u2019s public service in an accompanying letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have made law and order a priority throughout your illustrious public service career and have been dedicated to ensuring the safety and security of the residents you represent and our members protect,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The South Florida PBA represents more than 7,000 law enforcement and corrections officers, according to the group\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Its endorsement of Lopez this week adds to four other<\/a> cross-aisle nods<\/a> from Miami Beach Commissioners Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, Laura Dominguez, Alex Fernandez and Monica Matteo-Salinas.<\/p>\n

All four city officials are Democrats. Lopez is a Republican, though both Miami Beach and Miami-Dade Commission seats are technically nonpartisan.<\/p>\n

Lopez said in a statement that she is \u201chonored\u201d to have support from the PBA \u201cand the brave men and women they represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety is foundational to a strong community, and I will always stand with those who put their lives on the line to protect our residents,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to continuing our work together to keep Miami-Dade County safe and thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez, who was\u00a0appointed<\/a>\u00a0by her County Commission peers last year to represent District 5,\u00a0raised nearly $589,000 last quarter<\/a>, far outpacing her lone challenger, Florida Highway Patrol trooper and former Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez, a Republican.<\/p>\n

District 5 includes the cities of Miami and Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

All County Commission candidates will be on the Aug. 18 Primary ballot, as those races and others in the county are technically nonpartisan.<\/p>\n

If no candidate in a given contest receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will compete in a Nov. 3 runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicki Lopez is heading into May with a new endorsement from the South Florida Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8184,28,30,29,1064,24953,373,24954,110338,110339,110340,11674],"class_list":["post-252863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-election-2026","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-miami-dade","tag-miami-dade-commission","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-miami-dade-county-commission","tag-south-florida-pba","tag-south-florida-police-benevolent-association","tag-steadman-stahl","tag-vicki-lopez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252863","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=252863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}