Coral Gables mayor runs for final term. What are his plans? Who are his opponents?

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is on the ballot again, hoping to be reelected to a fourth and final term as mayor of the City Beautiful.

He’s facing off against longtime Gables residents and previous candidates Laureano Cancio, an attorney who says he’ll never retire, and Jackson Rip Holmes, a self-described “perennially losing candidate” who owns property on Miracle Mile.

Lago’s term, like the rest of the City Commission, was shortened by several months after voters approved moving city elections from April in odd-numbered years to November of even years to coincide with state and national elections. That means Gables voters, for the first time ever, will weigh in on the city’s next mayor, along with two other commission seats, this November.

Here’s what to know about the mayoral candidates:

Who is running for Coral Gables mayor?

Vince Lago – incumbent

Lago in 2021 became the youngest person to be elected Gables mayor, at age 43. He was reelected for a third term as mayor in April 2025, with over 55% of the vote.

Now 49, Lago said he counts many of his initiatives in office as successes, including creating over 20 new parks and “pocket parks” across the city, supporting the Coral Gables Art Cinema’s ongoing expansion, bringing back historic “White Way” lights to the city, and delivering Fire Station Number Four, which he says was one of George Merrick’s unfinished projects.

He touts the referendums he backed in April’s vote-by-mail election that were approved by voters as signs that he’s doing what residents elected him to do. Voters moved elections, said they wanted inspector general services and agreed that commissioners should seek voter approval to raise their own salaries. Voters also cemented changes by the City Commission that make it harder for elected officials to dip into the city’s reserves.

He’s found allies in Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara for many of his ideas but is frequently at odds with Commissioner Melissa Castro, who is also running for reelection. Most recently, the two have accused each other of violating ethics laws.

“It’s been a long road,” Lago said of his nearly 14 years in office as mayor and commissioner, noting that he was the first elected city official to host weekly office hours to meet with residents. He’s particularly proud of efforts to bolster the city’s finances, including his legislation to maintain the city’s general reserve fund at 25% of the operating budget and his strategy of making extra payments to pay off the city’s pension fund for employees faster.

The city’s reserves, which are like the city’s emergency savings, have grown from about $19 million to over $64 million since he took office, Lago said. The pension, similarly, went from 52% funded to nearly 80% funded. Lago says making the extra payments now will benefit the city in the future because once the pension is fully funded, the city will have millions more to direct toward projects and other expenses. He said the decisions have “played a major role” in making the Gables one of a handful in Florida to have a triple bond rating, which lets the city borrow money at a cheaper rate for projects.

Lago recently became a fellow of the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at Florida International University, where he is teaching a class as part of the fellowship. And he says he was appointed to the board of the proposed Pedro Pan museum. His parents came to the U.S. as part of Operation Pedro Pan.

In his professional life, Lago has specialized for over a decade in building educational facilities across South Florida, including for Florida International University, Miami-Dade public schools and the University of Miami. He recently began a new job with a company that will specialize in building workforce housing outside the Gables.

That outside employment recently put Lago under scrutiny. Critics of the mayor have questioned whether he had a conflict of interest in regard to his involvement in a recently approved 30-year development agreement between the city and the University of Miami. Hammer Construction Corporation — the parent company of Lago’s employer, Hammer Commercial Construction — is an authorized contractor for UM and did work for the university as recently as several months ago, permit information shows.

Lago described the allegations as politically motivated and said that he holds “no stock, no equity and no ownership interest in Hammer Construction” or in Hammer Commercial. He said his job focuses on workforce housing “outside of the Gables” and that he consulted with an attorney before voting on the agreement. Four ethics experts told the Miami Herald that, based on the publicly available information about the mayor’s job and the UM deal, Lago does not appear to have run afoul of any state ethics laws but should avoid voting on any Hammer-related UM projects that may come before the City Commission in the future. Lago says that’s what he plans to do.

Laureano Cancio – challenger

Cancio, 75, came to South Florida at age 10 through Operation Pedro Pan before eventually moving with his family to Detroit. He has now lived in the Gables for over 25 years. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School, though he jokes that he won his first legal case long before he became an attorney, when he argued for — and successfully received — a waiver to get out of a phonetics course requirement for his Spanish literature major at Wayne State University.

Cancio previously lost a 2025 race for the Group II commission seat. While he’s never held elected office, Cancio said he can bring a wealth of knowledge to the dais, not just from his over 40 years of experience as an attorney but also from previous roles, including five consecutive terms as president of the Hispanic Business & Professional Association of Bergen County in New Jersey, which he founded.

He previously worked as assistant labor relations director at Columbia University and HR Director of the New York Botanical Garden, and previously served on the Board of Trustees of Ramapo College of New Jersey, the Hackensack Medical Center Board of Trustees and the Bergen Arts Center Board of Trustees.

Jackson Rip Holmes – challenger

Jackson Rip Holmes, 75, is a lifelong Gables resident who grew up in the city and owns the Miracle Mile property where Massage Envy is located.

Holmes has run for mayor and other commission seats previously, mainly to advocate for a department store on Miracle Mile, he said. He’s lost every time, though he secures slightly more votes every election. In the 2023 election, when he lost against Castro for the Group IV seat, he received just under 7% of the vote.

Holmes frequently attends commission meetings. He’s praised the city’s upcoming plans for the Mobility Hub, a pet project of Lago and City Manager Peter Iglesias that will involve tearing down and rebuilding a new garage off the Mile.

Decades ago, he served three years in federal prison after being convicted in 1988 of threatening Jeb Bush, who was under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service when his father, George H.W. Bush, was vice president, according to Herald archives. Holmes said his civil rights were restored in Connecticut in 1994 and described the issue as a family misunderstanding on his campaign website in 2021, calling Bush his “personal hero,” according to Herald archives. In 2008, Holmes was arrested in Coral Gables on a domestic battery charge related to his ex-wife; the case was later dismissed.

Why are they running?

Lago’s priorities if reelected include the restoration of the city’s “crown jewels” — the Gondola Building that sits on the Biltmore golf course, the historic Alhambra Water Tower and City Hall, where work is already underway.

“That is a big step forward in ensuring our historic buildings and character are not only preserved but are celebrated,” Lago said.

Lago said he’s also looking forward to the city’s streetscape beautification initiative, which is expected to make maintenance cheaper for business owners while letting the city manage sidewalk pressure-cleaning and repairs, landscaping and streetscape upkeep to clean and beautify the city’s downtown. Lago, a self-described park and art aficionado, also pointed to the renovations of Ponce Circle Park and the opening of seven new parks as items he’s looking forward to seeing completed.

Those efforts, he said, along with more robust programming like Miami Fashion Week pop-ups and the creation of the Mobility Hub — which he says “is going to revolutionize the way people park in our community” — will help attract more shoppers and diners to the business district.

Lago said the city will need to rely more on its “robust and vibrant downtown” to get “some relief” if Florida’s Amendment 3, a statewide property tax cut Lago supports, is approved by voters. The Gables gets a large portion of its revenue from property taxes.

“It’s truly about elevating our downtown and just continuing to invest in the downtown, continuing to make it a priority because for many, many years it wasn’t made a priority,” Lago said. He said private landlords are pricing mom-and-pop shops out with rising rents and choosing to bring in more banks, which close early and on weekends.

Cancio also believes rising rents are to blame for the struggling businesses on Miracle Mile and the rest of the Gables commercial district. He believes enhancing the city’s “cultural life” is key to success.

That’s why Cancio said, if elected, he would be open to exploring rent control — like what’s in place in San Francisco and New York City — and other options to help make it more affordable for local businesses to stay open on the Mile. For now, Florida’s Live Local Act prevents cities from passing rent-control measures.

Holmes’ “ultimate goal” would be to get a department store in the Miracle Mile area “so we have an anchor for retail.” He believes that would help bring business to neighboring shops and businesses, which in turn would help landlords like him, too. He wants to see misting machines around the Mile “like they have at Disney World” to make it cooler for shoppers in the summer, and would push to hire more fire personnel and end the city’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Both Holmes and Cancio say the real reason they’re running is to get rid of Lago, who they argue is voting for the best interest of developers, not residents.

Lago disputes the accusations, which he says are meant to hurt his reelection campaign. He said the political attacks are also the reason why he pushed to have a referendum on November’s ballot that asks whether the city should get voter approval before selling, leasing, transferring or conveying parks, recreational facilities like the youth center and other “open spaces.”

“I was tired of the politics … and the fake news that was being spewed about my intentions for the city. I have no interest in selling any green space. If anything, I’ve been the mayor — outside of George Merrick — that has brought more green space to the city in the last 14 years,” Lago said. He said the city’s downtown only had one park, Ponce Circle Park, when he was first elected and now has eight parks, not counting the other parks he’s brought across the city.

“We should be buying as many assets as possible here in the city of Coral Gables due to the simple fact that the price of land in our city is only getting more expensive, and you will see a dynamic transformation or shift in our downtown once we have all eight parks renovated or in line and delivered. And people will understand then how important it was to truly bring this to a reality,” Lago said.

How to vote

Early voting began Monday, Oct. 19. If you want to vote on Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. For people who like to vote-by-mail, that’s also the deadline to return your ballot. Remember, the Elections Department must receive your vote-by-mail ballot by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order for it to count.

For a , visit the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections website. To find your voting location for Election Day, review your voter registration card or your voter information online on the Elections website.