DeSantis still hasn't called special election for vacant Miami state House seat

More than 75,000 voters likely won’t have a representative in the state House this legislative session as Gov. Ron DeSantis delays calling for a special election in a Miami-Dade district Republicans flipped red in 2022.

The seat became vacant last month after Miami-Dade County commissioners appointed Vicki Lopez to the County Commission seat formerly held by Miami Mayor-elect Eileen Higgins, leaving it up to DeSantis to decide when voters will choose a new state representative.

But since DeSantis has been in office, he’s taken significantly longer than his predecessors to schedule special elections. In the two decades before DeSantis took office, it only took governors an average of eight days to call for a special election following a vacancy, according to an analysis by the ACLU.

It’s now been 28 days since Lopez was sworn in as a county commissioner, a gap that is garnering criticism of DeSantis from candidates on both the left and the right.



https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article313751864.html#storylink=cpy