Democrat wins Miami mayoral race for first time in nearly 30 years, marking major GOP loss
Eileen Higgins, the 61‑year‑old former Miami‑Dade County commissioner, has just become the city’s first Democratic mayor in almost three decades, defeating the Trump‑backed Republican challenger, Emilio Gonzalez, in the Tuesday night runoff. She will also be Miami’s first woman to hold the office.
After the vote, Higgins said, “Tonight, the people of Miami made history,” in a statement that captured the moment.
The result surprised many Republicans, who had seen the mayoral race as a barometer for President Trump’s standing in his second term. Besides Higgins, key GOP figures—Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rick Scott, and Gov. Ron DeSantis—had rallied behind Gonzalez.
In the November primary, Higgins had already pulled ahead, polling 36% to 19% in a crowded field, so her win was not a close call. But the fact that she won in a city with a sizeable Cuban‑American population, a demographic that has historically leaned Republican, is being read as a setback for the GOP as it heads into the 2026 mid‑term elections. Other recent elections, like New York’s newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani and a Tennessee special congressional race that finished much tighter than expected, have also highlighted a shift among Hispanic voters.
The Miami election is being watched nationwide as a possible bellwether for the political climate in the coming year.
Higgins had known the city well from her time as a county commissioner, overseeing the Little Havana community. Her campaign focused on affordable housing and portrayed Republicans as hostile to immigrants—especially the large Hispanic population that makes up a significant portion of Miami and Florida as a whole.
“I’ve never been prouder to be a Democrat,” Higgins told The Associated Press before the official results came in. “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 Trump a central figure in her campaign, even putting out flyers that altered photos of Gonzalez to show Trump wearing a red MAGA hat. The runner‑up, Governor Gonzalez, had previously headed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President George W. Bush, had advocated cutting property taxes, and expressed support for the Trump administration’s hard‑line immigration crackdown.
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