MIAMI — Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins is heading to the Miami mayor’s office, becoming the first Democrat elected to the position in 28 years. And Democrats in Florida and nationwide are exuberant over the results.
Higgins easily defeated Republican Emilio Gonzalez to become the city’s first woman mayor, with Sunshine State Democrats predicting it was just the beginning of brighter days ahead after multiple cycles of statewide woe at the ballot box.
Higgins campaign adviser Christian Ulvert said the victory showed voters wanted to get back to uniting communities and addressing kitchen-table issues.
“We have a plus-five registration advantage in Miami, but we over-performed to an 8 point turnout advantage — that shows it can be done,” Ulvert said from Higgins’ victory party at the Miami Women’s Club in Edgewater. “It also reinforces what Commissioner Higgins has been saying all along: When you show up and get the work done, voters stand up and stand with you every day.”
Higgins’ campaign is likely to be studied carefully by other Democratic hopefuls in Florida. She ran not on social justice or culture war issues, but on improving affordability and making government work better. She agreed with Republicans that the city’s finances needed a careful look.
Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and ambassador to Japan, told POLITICO’s Lisa Kashinsky as he dropped into the Magic City on Monday to help with canvassing that a “quality messenger” paired up with “quality message” adds up to “a good election result.” He ticked off topics they discussed, from corruption to housing and “the length of time for building permits.” He said Higgins leans into a certain type of Democratic identity that says “government is too focused on rules and not enough about results.” (Some might call that “Abundance.”)
Republicans, meanwhile, will face questions after Tuesday’s result, including on how motivated their base is and whether they’re losing ground with Latinos. A central issue is whether it’ll continue to be effective to label Democrats as “socialists” at every turn, given it didn’t seem to have hurt Higgins. In interviews with half a dozen GOP volunteers over the last month, there was also disagreement over whether it had been a good idea for President Donald Trump to endorse in a nonpartisan race.
Some top Republicans, including Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power, had tempered expectations. Power said the race already “leans D.” (The president in 2024 lost the city to former Vice President Kamala Harris by 1 point.)
“Democrats have to live somewhere, as much as we would prefer that they don’t,” Power said.
Miami-Dade GOP Chair Kevin Cooper warned Democrats were “making a mountain out of a molehill” by seeing Tuesday night’s results as anything other than “Democratic city elects Democratic mayor.”
Tuesday’s circumstances were highly unusual. First off, despite all action to the contrary, the race is supposed to be nonpartisan. And while Higgins and González at times swapped distancing and embracing their respective parties, voters didn’t see party labels when they cast their ballot.
Other factors make tea leaf reading difficult. It’s an off-year election, and the first Miami mayoral runoff since 2001. It’s also the first time the mayor’s race has ever been decided in December, as people prepare for the holidays.
But because Republicans held the seat for so long and because Higgins won by nearly 20 points, there’s bound to be hand-wringing in the months ahead about whether it’s a sign of bigger changes to come. And now Democrats can add Miami to their list of 2025 wins.
“Donald Trump got involved in this election. Ron DeSantis got involved in this election. Every statewide elected Republican got involved in this election,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “They knew this was an important race, and them blowing it off today is why we’re going to be able to win some really big races next year — because they think they just have Florida in the bag.”
If there’s one thing González and Higgins agree on, it’s that they showed a level of decorum Miami politics isn’t used to. “We turned a page here,” González said. “We had an election where no one was insulting each other, no one was throwing rocks or bottles at each other. We stayed above the fray.”
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