Democrats have taken control of Miami for the first time in nearly 30 years after candidate Eileen Higgins clinched the city’s mayoral election.
Higgins, 61, beat out Trump-backed Republican Emilio Gonzalez in the Florida city’s runoff Tuesday night and will become the city’s first Democratic mayor since 1998, as well as the city’s first-ever woman mayor.
“Tonight, the people of Miami made history,” she said in a statement after the results were announced.
The victory is an upset for GOP lawmakers across the country, who rallied behind Gonzalez as the election became seen as a test of voter reaction to President Trump’s first year of his second White House term.
Trump himself even threw his weight behind Gonzalez, and was joined by the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rick Scott, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But the Democrat’s victory wasn’t much of a nail-biter. Higgins had led Gonzalez 36% to 19% during the first round of voting amid a crowded field in November, and was the favorite to win this time.
Still, her triumph in a city with a considerable Cuban population — a group that’s often swung right in the past — will be perceived as another ding in the GOP’s armor going into the 2026 midterms.
Far left-winger Zohran Mamdani’s ascension to New York City’s mayorship has also been perceived as a voter answer to Trump, as has a Tennessee US congressional special election that went Republican by far closer margins than had been expected.
Hispanic voters swinging from right to left have played a significant part in such elections — and the Miami election was perceived by lawmakers across the country as another bellwether for where things might be headed in the new year.
Higgins previously served as Miami-Dade County commissioner and oversaw the Hispanic-heavy neighborhood known as Little Havana.
Her campaign focused on affordable housing, and characterized Republicans as being hostile to immigrants — especially to the Hispanics who make up a sizable portion of Miami and Florida as a whole.
“I’ve never been prouder to be a Democrat,” Higgins told The Associated Press ahead of her historic win. “We’re living in the state of Florida, where we have people that are building cages for our residents rather than affordable housing for them.”
She also made opposing Trump one of the centers of her campaign, and even distributed fliers with pictures of Gonzalez altered to show him wearing a red MAGA hat.
Gonzalez — who led President George W. Bush’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services — proposed eliminating property taxes during his campaign, and expressed support for the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
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