Miami elects first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades
Higgins' decisive win adds to the momentum Democrats gained in a flurry of election victories last month, which dimmed Republican prospects of maintaining Trump's dominance over Congress in the 2026 midterm elections
Democrat Eileen Higgins on Tuesday (9 December) became the first member of her party in nearly three decades to be elected mayor of Miami, defeating a Republican backed by President Donald Trump in a Hispanic-majority city at the heart of his Florida stronghold.
CNN and the Associated Press called the election for Higgins less than an hour after polls closed, as returns showed the former Miami-Dade County commissioner leading her Republican opponent, Emilio Gonzalez, by 18 percentage points.
The Miami mayoral race, an officially nonpartisan local contest that normally draws little national attention, rose to prominence this year as a key test of voter sentiment in Trump's political backyard.
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Higgins' decisive win adds to the momentum Democrats gained in a flurry of election victories last month, which dimmed Republican prospects of maintaining Trump's dominance over Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
It also heightens Republican concerns about whether the Hispanic support Trump peeled away from Democrats in 2024 has since weakened.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Higgins, 61, made no mention of the national implications of her victory, instead portraying it as a decision that "turned the page on years of chaos and corruption" at the local level.
Higgins is the first Democrat to win Miami's mayoral race since 1997, when Xavier Suarez—father of outgoing Republican incumbent Francis Suarez—was last elected.
She also becomes the first woman and the first non-Hispanic candidate since the 1990s to be elected mayor of Miami, a predominantly Hispanic city of roughly 487,000 residents that is part of Miami-Dade County.
Tuesday's results suggest Republican strength has softened in Miami-Dade, where many historically left-leaning Hispanic voters shifted to Trump last year—as they did nationally—helping him secure 55% of the county vote in the 2024 presidential race, according to the Miami Herald.
In the first round of voting on 4 November, Higgins won 36% in a crowded field, finishing comfortably in first place but short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Gonzalez placed second with 18%.
That set up Tuesday's runoff. Neither Higgins nor Gonzalez, 68, a former city manager and retired US Army colonel, initially ran overtly partisan campaigns.
The race took on national overtones after Democrats' strong showing in last month's off-year elections, including gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia, New York City's mayoral race, and a redistricting referendum in California.
Trump then weighed in on 17 November, publicly endorsing Gonzalez on Truth Social and urging Miami voters: "GET OUT AND VOTE FOR EMILIO – HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"
The Democratic National Committee countered by backing Higgins, joined by several prominent Democrats including US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Still, extrapolating national or statewide political trends from local races remains difficult. Another Democratic non-Hispanic woman, Daniella Levine Cava, has been mayor of Miami-Dade since 2020 and was re-elected last year even though Trump carried the county in the presidential race.
