Unofficial results: Mayor Vince Lago won with 56.8%, Nestor Menendez beat Commissioner Melissa Castro by 121 votes and Nikki Whiting won Group V. No runoff.

Coral Gables voters reelected Mayor Vince Lago on Tuesday and replaced one sitting commissioner. Nestor Menendez beat Commissioner Melissa Castro in Group IV by 121 votes out of 19,943 cast. Nikki Whiting won the open race in Group V.

Voters also approved two of the four City Charter questions and turned down the other two. A four-year term for the mayor failed, as did a higher limit for bidding on public works.

All of these figures are unofficial. They come from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department’s results page, which showed all 16 Coral Gables precincts reporting when it was updated at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday. The county says results stay “preliminary and unofficial” until provisional ballots and cure affidavits are reviewed and the canvassing board certifies them.

Mayor (Group I)

Candidate Votes Share
Vince Lago 11,298 56.76%
Laureano Cancio 5,119 25.72%
Jackson Rip Holmes 3,487 17.52%

Lago won more than half the vote in a three-way race, so the Dec. 1 runoff the commission prepared for will not be needed for mayor. The commission named a canvassing board for a possible runoff (PDF) in advance. The two commission races had two candidates each, so neither could go to a runoff.

This is Lago’s last term as mayor. The charter limits a mayor to eight consecutive years. A city resolution noted that the current mayor, if reelected this November, would reach that limit and could not run in 2028, according to Resolution 2026-192 (PDF).

Commission Group IV

Candidate Votes Share
Nestor Menendez 10,032 50.30%
Melissa Castro 9,911 49.70%

Castro is a sitting commissioner, according to the city’s commission page. Menendez won more votes than Castro on Election Day and in early voting. Castro won the mail ballots, 3,551 to 3,308.

The 121-vote margin is about 0.61% of the votes cast in the race. Florida law orders an automatic machine recount when a candidate loses by one-half of a percent or less, under section 102.141 of the Florida Statutes. On the unofficial count, this race is just outside that line. Provisional ballots and cured mail ballots can still change the totals before certification.

Commission Group V

Candidate Votes Share
Nikki Whiting 10,801 56.02%
Gonzalo Sanabria 8,479 43.98%

Neither candidate sits on the current commission. The city’s candidate list gives the winner’s full name as Dominique “Nikki” Whiting.

The four charter questions

Each question needed a simple majority of the votes cast on it.

Question Yes No Result
Candidate residency rule 18,585 (92.01%) 1,614 (7.99%) Passed
Citywide vote before selling a park 16,614 (82.38%) 3,554 (17.62%) Passed
Four-year term for mayor 9,505 (46.69%) 10,853 (53.31%) Failed
$300,000 bidding limit for public works 8,790 (44.33%) 11,038 (55.67%) Failed
Bar chart of the share voting yes on the four Coral Gables charter questions on Nov. 3, 2026: candidate residency rule 92.01%, citywide vote to sell a park 82.38%, four-year term for mayor 46.69% and $300,000 bidding limit 44.33%. The first two passed and the last two failed.
Share voting yes on each charter question, unofficial results. Chart by Coral Gables Today
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What each result means, from the questions as the commission wrote them:

  • Parks: the sale, swap or lease of 10 years or more of city-owned parkland, a recreation facility or a golf course will need 60% of city voters in a citywide special election. The commission is expected to follow with an ordinance setting out the detail, according to Resolution 2026-200 (PDF).
  • Residency: candidates for mayor and commission must have lived in the city continuously for at least one year before the end of the qualifying period, not just before Election Day.
  • Mayor’s term: the mayor keeps a two-year term. Whoever wins in 2028 will serve two years.
  • Bidding: public works contracts over $25,000 still go out for formal bids. Voters rejected raising that to $300,000.

Our ballot questions story has the full wording and the background on each one.

What it means for you

  • Nothing to do yet. The results become official once the canvassing board certifies them. We will update this story with the certified totals.
  • Check the precinct numbers yourself on the county’s unofficial results page, linked from the city’s election results page.
  • Questions about the count go to the City Clerk’s office, which runs the city election, or to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections at 305-499-8683.

Dates and rules for future elections are on our Coral Gables voting page. We do not endorse candidates or positions.