Two more jump in: Bruno Barreiro, Gloria Romero Roses join HD 113 race

• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

Just when we thought the list of people running for a seat that doesn’t even have an election date yet was long enough, aquí vienen former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and onetime congressional candidate Gloria Romero Roses — business leader, community builder, assisted living maven — are now the newest contestants in the Florida House District 113 Hunger Games, er, race to fill Vicki Lopez’s suddenly-vacant seat now that she was appointed to the Miami-Dade District 5 seat by the county commission.

And we have two primary sweepstakes.

Remember when Ladra told you last week that the race had already gotten muy interesante with three candidates running: Antonio Javier “Tony” Diaz and Frank Lago, who will now battle with Barreiro in a Republican primary, and Democrat Justin Mendoza Routt, president of both the Historic Bayside Civic Association and the Miami-Dade Young Democrats, who is backed by the same machinery that put the former D5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins in office and is running her Miami mayoral campaign.

Romero Roses has now forced a Dem primary — and she’s bringing a 40-year résumé, an MBA, and a press release so polished it practically winks at you. Growing up in South Florida after coming from Bogotá and being raised by her single mom — a nurse who worked double shifts, so we checked all three political bio bingo squares right out the gate — Gloria says Miami is “at a crossroads.” And honestly, con la renta como está, who can argue?

Read related: Three wannabes are vying for House seat 113 — but there’s no election yet

She says working families and seniors are getting priced out while Tallahassee politicians are busy fighting over drag queens and pronouns. And she’s not entirely wrong. She’s running because Miami “deserves leadership that solves problems, not creates them.”

That’s una indirecta if Ladra ever heard one.

Her platform is a painfully familiar list of staples: Affordable housing, childcare, elder care, insurance… basically the full Miami survival kit.

Romero Roses says she wants to expand access to capital for housing, speed up project delivery, and roll out “smart growth,” which is the development buzzword of the day. She also calls childcare “economic infrastructure,” which Ladra actually agrees with — considering it costs almost as much as college tuition.

Then there’s her deeply personal Alzheimer’s story: nine years of caring for her mom, which led her to operate an assisted living facility and advocate in Tallahassee and D.C. Miami-Dade has the highest Alzheimer’s rate in the country, she notes, and she says she wants to create something called an “Elder’s Trust.” Ladra is not entirely sure what that means yet, but it sounds like something abuelo would approve of.

Insurance? Of course. Everybody running for anything in Florida in 2026 is required to mention insurance reform at least twice in every speech. Gloria says she’s seen how skyrocketing premiums are hurting families and small businesses and promises “data-driven, practical reforms.” Where have we heard that before?

She wraps it all up with a line about leadership you can trust, stability, affordability and a pep-rally “¡Pa’lante!” — which is a great slogan unless someone else in the race already bought the domain name.

Florida House District 113 encompassesKey Biscayne, the Roads, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, and more. It’s an interesting mix of voter demographics.

In 2012, the Democrats pit Romero Roses against then Congressman King David “Nine Lives” Rivera. Ladra called her Annette Taddeo 2.0. Barreiro, meanwhile, had resigned his county commission seat in 2017 to run for congress and also lost. He also flirted with running against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo. And last month, he submitted an application for the commission appointment, but was passed up.

Still, make no mistake: Barreiros’s jump into the GOP primary among two relatively unknowns is going to change the landscape. And Gloria’s entry shakes things up for Democrats who are hoping to flip the seat.

HD 113 was already a political game of musical chairs, with viable candidates jockeying for a district that still doesn’t have an election date. That officially makes it the hottest seat no one can sit in yet.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.