Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe, a Democrat and a candidate for county mayor, will resign her current office effective Dec. 7, a date that will allow Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to choose her replacement rather than set a special election for district voters to decide.
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Her decision, which had been telegraphed but became official with her late Tuesday submittal of a resignation letter, drew a rebuke from some traditional Democratic backers.
“Now her constituents will likely be represented by an appointee, someone they did not choose at the ballot box,” said Genesis Reyes of Immigrants Are Welcome Here, an advocacy group. “The people of District 3 deserve the opportunity to elect their next representative. While we respect the legal process, we remain deeply disappointed that the community has been deprived of that choice.”
Uribe, who has two years remaining on her four-year term as commissioner of a solidly Democratic district that includes a large swath of southeast Orlando, is one of six candidates who have announced a run to succeed term-limited Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings, a candidate for governor.
In a three-paragraph letter to Orange County Election Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel, a copy of which was sent to the governor, Uribe said, “I respectfully request that the provisions of the [Orange County] Charter are recognized and that a special election will be held.”
“I certainly support an election,” she told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday.
She said the governor could choose to leave the seat open or call a special election rather than appoint a replacement.
But Mark Herron, Florida Democrats’ top election attorney, said 2021 amendments to the state’s Resign-to-Run law allow DeSantis to ignore Uribe’s request. The law no longer says the resignation creates a vacancy in an office to be filled by election.
The 2021 law also deleted a provision that allowed for an election in a charter county like Orange to be held to fill “an unexpired term in a manner provided by the respective charter.” Now, only a resignation that comes early enough to coincide with an already-scheduled election requires voters to decide.
Uribe said she she hoped her decision on a later resignation date would not cost her the support of labor or fellow Democrats. “I have worked closely with labor and our community on many important issues over the years,” she said, adding she was honored to have the support of Orange County firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers.
The seven-member board of commissioners, which includes the county mayor as a voting member of the panel, has an existing vacancy in District 2 because Christine Moore resigned to run for Apopka Mayor, a race she lost.
That race, however, was already on the ballot for this year, meaning a DeSantis appointee could only serve a few months. So far, the governor has made no such appointment.
But given the longer timeframe with the Uribe seat, Jarred Cornell, interim chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, doubted the Republican governor would pass up the chance to pick someone like-minded to fill it. “When he’s looking to build Republican power in a Democratic county, of course he’s going to take the opportunity to insert somebody that will go by his wishes,” Cornell said of DeSantis.
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“He has proven time and again partisanship is his number one topic. Look, as recently as the gerrymandering that just happened.”
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Uribe’s decision means an election for her District 3 seat likely won’t be held in 2028, when her term ends. So far, seven candidates have filed to represent the district, which generally spans from East Colonial Drive in the north, south to Orlando International Airport, bracketed by Orange Blossom Trail and Goldenrod Road.
Others competing with Uribe for the non-partisan mayor’s job are Brandy Griffin; Randy Fust Jr.; former Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy; Winter Park businessman Chris Messina; and Tiffany Moore Russell, who also had to resign her elected post as Orange County Clerk of Courts to seek the mayor’s role. The law required the resignation letters be submitted by May 28.
Moore Russell said her resignation date, effective August 31, was chosen to let county voters pick her replacement.
The Clerk’s seat is expected to be on the November 2026 ballot.
“The people of Orange County deserve to choose their Clerk of Courts — not have one appointed for them,” Moore Russell, clerk since 2014, said in a statement released by her campaign. “Throughout my career, I have shown that I will always put the people of Orange County first. Voters deserve a mayor who will put their interest and needs ahead of their own, and today is about the residents, not me.”
Adopted in 1970, Florida’s Resign-to-Run law requires an elected or appointed official to resign their seat if seeking another office and the terms would overlap.
The effective date of Uribe’s resignation had to be Aug. 4 or sooner to trigger an election this year, said Blake Summerlin, spokesperson for Election Supervisor Karen Castor Dental.
Uribe told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this month she struggled with the decision but couldn’t bring herself to leave office with critical county commission votes looming this summer.
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The board of commissioners will hold budget hearings, decide allocation of Tourist Development Taxes and consider a homeless shelter project Uribe helped craft over more than three years. None of those issues are likely to be decided until late August or later.
Earlier this month, the AFL-CIO labor union, representing about 70,000 Central Florida workers, passed a resolution vowing not to support any candidate who doesn’t resign their office in time for a new election. Union President Eric Clinton had forwarded the resolution to both Uribe and Moore Russell’s campaigns.
“I think it’s a mistake to put that power in his hands, for any seat,” Clinton said of DeSantis. “I think we’re an important voice … we think that whoever is going to be the next mayor of Orange County needs our support.”
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