Carlos Lopez-Cantera

Carlos Lopez-Cantera was the 19th lieutenant governor of Florida. A Republican, he was appointed by Governor Rick Scott (R) on January 14, 2014, to fill the seat left vacant by former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who resigned in March 2013. Lopez-Cantera was sworn into office on February 3, 2014.^[1]

Lopez-Cantera was elected to his first full term as lieutenant governor on November 4, 2014, running on the GOP ticket with incumbent Gov. Scott.

Before Scott appointed him as lieutenant governor in 2014, Lopez-Cantera was serving in the county-wide elected role of Miami-Dade property appraiser.^[1]

Lopez-Cantera announced he would run for U.S. Senate on July 15, 2015, but he dropped out of the race on June 22, 2016, after incumbent Marco Rubio (R) announced he would run for re-election.^[2][3]

Lopez-Cantera was a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 113th District from 2004 to 2012. He served as House majority leader from 2010 to 2012.

Biography

Lopez-Cantera graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor's degree in 1996. He obtained an associate degree from Miami-Dade Community College.

Before entering politics, Lopez-Cantera worked as an industrial commercial real estate consultant and industrial real estate agent at Pan American Consulting Incorporated.^[4]

Education

• Associate's degree - Miami-Dade Community College (1994)
• Bachelor's degree - University of Miami (1996)^[4]

Political career

Lieutenant Governor of Florida (2014-2019)

In January 2014, Governor Rick Scott (R) appointed Lopez-Cantera as lieutenant governor to fill the vacancy created by former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's (R) resignation in March 2013.^[1] Lopez-Cantera was the first Hispanic lieutenant governor in Florida's history.^[5]

Florida House of Representatives (2004-2012)

Lopez-Cantera was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 113th District, in 2004. He was re-elected in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and opted not to seek re-election in 2012. His tenure as a state lawmaker included serving as House majority leader, from 2010 to 2012.

Lopez-Cantera's sponsored legislation included:

• HB 283 - "Discretionary Surtax on Documents: Extends future repeal date of provisions authorizing counties to levy discretionary surtax on documents; limits percentage of surtax revenues used for administrative costs; specifies minimum amount of surtax revenues used for housing for low-income & moderate-income families"
• HB 705 - "Traffic Control: Provides for synchronization of traffic lights by DOT & local traffic control authorities; provides for benchmarks & monitoring."
• HB 1529 - "Medicaid: Requires contract between AHCA & certain HMOs or entities that do not provide prepaid health care services to set rates on beneficiary-specific, risk-adjusted basis"

For details and a full listing of sponsored bills, see the House site.

Committee assignments

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Lopez-Cantera served on the following committee:

• Appropriations

2009-2010

In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Lopez-Cantera served on these committees:

• Rules & Calendar Council
• Select Committee on Seminole Indian Compact Review

Elections

2014

See also: Florida Gubernatorial and Lieutenant Gubernatorial election, 2014

Election

Lopez-Cantera ran on the Republican ticket for a full term as lieutenant governor in the 2014 elections. He ran on a ticket with incumbent Gov. Rick Scott (R). Scott and Lopez-Cantera defeated the Democratic ticket of Charlie Crist and Annette Taddeo-Goldstein and several other challengers in the general election on November 4, 2014.

Results

Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Florida, 2014
Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Rick Scott/Carlos Lopez-Cantera Incumbent	48.1%	2,865,343
	Democratic	Charlie Crist/Annette Taddeo-Goldstein	47.1%	2,801,198
	Libertarian	Adrian Wyllie/Greg Roe	3.8%	223,356
	No Party Affiliation	Glenn Burkett/Jose Augusto Matos	0.7%	41,341
	No Party Affiliation	Farid Khavari/Lateresa Jones	0.3%	20,186
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0%	137
Total Votes	5,951,561
Election results via Florida Division of Elections

Appointment

Gov. Rick Scott appointed Lopez-Cantera Lieutenant Governor of Florida to replace Jennifer Carroll (R), who resigned in March 2013. Scott announced Lopez-Cantera as Carroll's successor to the lieutenant governorship in January 2014. His appointment began on February 3 and ran through January 2015, when Carroll's term was scheduled to expire.^[1]

2012

See also: Florida House of Representatives elections, 2012

Lopez-Cantera did not run for re-election in 2012.^[6]

2010

See also: Florida House of Representatives elections, 2010

Lopez-Cantera ran for re-election to the 113th District seat in 2010. He did not have any opposition in the August 24 primary. He defeated Alex Cruzet (D) and Waldo Faura (NPA) in the general election on November 2, 2010.^[7]

Florida House of Representatives, District 113 2010 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R)	14,284	62.9%
Alex Cruzet (D)	7,905	34.8%
Waldo Faura (NPA)	517	2.3%

2008

On November 4, 2008, Lopez-Cantera won re-election to the Florida House of Representatives from Florida's 113th District, defeating Javier Betancourt (D). Lopez-Cantera received 20,726 votes in the election while Betancourt received 14,868 votes.^[8] Lopez-Cantera raised $365,787 for his campaign; Betancourt raised $14,776.^[9]

Florida House of Representatives, District 113
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Carlos Lopez-Cantera (R)	20,726	58.2%
Javier Betancourt (D)	14,868	41.8%

Presidential preference

2012

See also: Endorsements by state officials of presidential candidates in the 2012 election

Carlos Lopez-Cantera endorsed Rick Perry in the 2012 presidential election.^[10]

Campaign finance summary

Ballotpedia currently provides campaign finance data for all federal- and state-level candidates from 2020 and later. We are continuously working to expand our data to include prior elections. That information will be published here as we acquire it. If you would like to help us provide this data, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
When he served as lieutenant governor, Lopez-Cantera and his wife, Renee, had a daughter named Sabrina.^[1]

See also

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Legislative Profile from Project Vote Smart
• Biography from Project Vote Smart
• Career campaign contributions

Footnotes

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