He later served as a member of Mexico's Chamber of Deputies as part of the LXI Legislature of the Mexican Congress from 2009 to 2012.

[1] Vega graduated from the Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior in 1978 with a degree in business administration.

[2] On November 2, 2011, while he was a federal deputy (or legislator), he announced his candidacy for governor of Baja California.

On March 10, 2013 he won the PAN's primary election for the first time (having sought the nomination twice previously), beating another ex-mayor of Tijuana, Héctor Guillermo Osuna Jaime.

Vega's major opponent was Fernando Castro Trenti of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.