Menendez defeats incumbent Castro in Coral Gables Group 4 race

Nestor Menendez won the Coral Gables City Commission Group 4 seat with 10,032 votes (50.3%) to incumbent Melissa Castro's 9,911 votes (49.7%), with all 16 of 16 reporting units counted, according to unofficial results from Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections. Menendez led by 121 votes. The result ends Castro's tenure on the five-member commission.

What the candidates said

Menendez told the Miami Herald on the night of Nov. 3 that he plans to start with a listening tour of residents and city employees.

"I listen, and I always keep Coral Gables first," Menendez said at Wolfe's Wine Shoppe on Miracle Mile, where he joined Mayor Vince Lago for an election watch party, according to the Herald.

Castro called Menendez on the night of Nov. 3 to congratulate him, the Herald reported. She told the Herald on the morning of Nov. 4 that she wants to wait for all Coral Gables ballots to be counted to see if the tight race qualifies for a recount.

What was at stake

The Group 4 seat carries a vote on the five-member Coral Gables City Commission, which oversees the city's budget, zoning, development and municipal services. Castro had positioned herself as one of Lago's most vocal critics, challenging the mayor on development projects, city spending and ethics issues, as Political Cortadito reported.

The key issues:

• Development and zoning: Castro opposed development projects and argued that without her, residents would get a commission that nearly always agrees with the mayor, the Herald reported. Menendez said he wants to address everyday problems such as sidewalk repairs and street maintenance.
• Traffic and infrastructure: Menendez told the Herald he wants to improve traffic calming, make the city more walkable and find ways to make it easier and cheaper for residents to convert homes from septic to sewer.
• Campaign spending: Menendez raised $147,370 compared with Castro's $24,736, Political Cortadito reported. Lago's political action committee, Coral Gables First, spent approximately $178,000 on political messaging in the race, according to the outlet.

Menendez's election gives Lago a commission without his most persistent critic.

A little history

Castro, the first Colombian elected to the Coral Gables City Commission, won her Group 4 seat in April 2023. Since the city's April 2025 election, she often found herself on the losing end of 3-2 commission votes, the Herald reported. She also faced an ongoing investigation by the Florida Commission on Ethics, which found probable cause in January 2026 that her private permit-expediting business created a conflicting contractual relationship with her duties as commissioner. Castro has denied any wrongdoing.

Menendez is an attorney at DiFalco and Fernandez LLLP who previously served on the city's Planning and Zoning Board and Charter Review Committee.

What's next

The results remain unofficial until the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board completes its review. Under Florida law, an automatic machine recount is triggered when the margin falls within 0.5 percentage points. The current margin of 0.6 percentage points sits just outside that threshold.

Election results: Coral Gables City Council - Group 4 (Florida General Election, 2026-11-03)

Source: Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections. Results current as of Nov. 4, 2026, 12:37 a.m. EST. Reporting: 16 of 16. Unofficial results; every reporting unit has reported.