Voters in Miami-Dade’s District 8 handed Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins a final four-year term Tuesday night, rejecting two challengers who argued the county’s spending has spun out of control on her watch.
Cohen Higgins took 55% of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff.
Her opponents, John DuBois and Martha “Vega” Hero, finished with 28% and 17% of the vote, respectively.
In a statement marking her victory, Cohen Higgins thanked her family, campaign team, volunteers and “every resident who believed in this campaign and made their voice heard.”
“It is an incredible privilege to serve this community. I look forward to building on everything we’ve accomplished together as we continue moving South Dade forward,” she said.
“Earning the trust of the residents of District 8 to continue serving on the Miami-Dade County Commission is a responsibility I will never take for granted. I am sincerely grateful for your support and proud to continue fighting for the community we all love. South Dade is more than the community I represent, it is home. As the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, a proud graduate of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and someone who has built my life and raised my family here, this community has shaped every part of who I am. That connection has guided every decision I have made as Commissioner, and it will continue to guide the work ahead.
“Together, we have made meaningful progress to strengthen our community — protecting our environment, investing in transportation and infrastructure, supporting small businesses, expanding opportunities for residents and families, and preparing South Dade for the future. While I am proud of what we have accomplished, I am even more energized by the work that still lies ahead.”
Cohen Higgins’ former colleague on the County Commission dais, Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, offered her congratulations after the results were confirmed.
“Danielle and I spent years working side by side on some of the biggest challenges facing our community, from housing and transportation to improving how government works for the people we serve,” she said in a statement. “Through it all, I came to know Danielle as someone who is prepared, thoughtful, and deeply committed to doing the hard work this job requires. Congratulations to Commissioner Cohen Higgins on her well-deserved victory. I know she’ll continue to be a powerful advocate for the families and communities she serves.”
Cohen Higgins, a Democrat, entered the night with more than $1.48 million to spend — a sum no challenger came close to matching.
DuBois is a longtime member of the GOP, according to state records. Those records also show that Hero switched from Democrat to independent in 2020 before reregistering as a Republican after the 2024 election.
Because County Commission races are technically nonpartisan, all three appeared on the same ballot.
District 8 spans much of southern Miami-Dade, including Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, parts of Homestead and unincorporated Kendall, Leisure City, Naranja and the Redland. Split by U.S. 1, it is one of the county’s fastest-growing and diverse areas, where suburbs give way to farmland that developers covet.
Cohen Higgins, who turned 45 this month, is a trial lawyer who joined the Commission by appointment in December 2020, succeeding Daniella Levine Cava after she won the mayoralty.
She won a full term in 2022 with 57% of the vote. Term limits force her out in 2030.
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Cohen Higgins organized her 2026 platform around affordability, transportation relief, environmental protection and public safety, according to her campaign website.
On the 13-member dais, she has developed a reputation as a fiscal watchdog with sensible environmental leanings, frequently pressuring her peers on the panel and Levine Cava’s administration on whether the county is overpaying for property and contracts while pushing back against development that could harm vulnerable habitats.
In 2022, Cohen Higgins was one of four “no” votes against shrinking the county’s Urban Development Boundary (UDB) for a Homestead-area industrial complex.
She was also a major proponent of a bridge connecting Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay on Southwest 87th Avenue that Levine Cava opposed — it opened last month — and supported the replacement of Miami-Dade’s waste-to-energy incinerator, telling a Miami Foundation forum it’s a necessary facility despite its unpopularity, according to the Miami Herald.
She carried endorsements from a slew of unions and advocacy organizations, and the Herald’s editorial board, which highlighted her experience in making tough decisions.
Cohen Higgins was among the Commission’s top fundraisers, with close to $243,000 raised this cycle through her campaign account and more than $1.34 million stacked between two political committees. Much of the funds came from real estate and development interests.
By Aug. 1, she had more than $1.48 million left to spend.
DuBois, 64, has lived in Miami-Dade more than 25 years and spent some 40 years as an information technology entrepreneur, building low-cost broadband service before competitors entered the market, according to his campaign website.
He served two four-year terms as Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor through 2020. In 2019, he launched a short-lived campaign for the County Commission’s District 8 seat after Levine Cava vacated it.
DuBois ran on a promise to bring more fiscal responsibility to County Hall while supporting well-planned development, improving public safety and addressing traffic congestion, telling Community News in July that commuting from his home to downtown Miami, which once took about 25 minutes, now takes as long as 90 minutes.
He criticized the county for failing to deliver on promised transit expansion, despite more than $3 billion collected through a local half-penny sales tax voters approved in 2003. Similarly, he hammered the county for its $4 billion budget rise since 2022 that coincided with minimal improvements to infrastructure and resident services — an issue CFO Blaise Ingoglia similarly raised in June.
He told the Herald he generally opposed moving the UDB.
Since entering the District 8 race in June, DuBois — who reported a $25 million net worth — added nearly $146,000 to his campaign account, almost all of it self-given, and spent about $94,000.
Hero, 61, was a first-time candidate and is President and CEO of National Community Services Inc., which runs adult education, English-as-a-second-language courses, citizenship preparation, workforce development and financial literacy programs alongside after-school care, Summer camps and food distribution.
Her campaign website cites more than 20 years serving South Dade and listed public safety, traffic and infrastructure, affordability, and support for job growth and small businesses as her priorities.
She wanted infrastructure dollars spent transparently and for their intended purpose, and to see permitting streamlined so entrepreneurs aren’t waiting years to open for business.
Hero previously provided Hispanic outreach services for U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar and worked on the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, all Republicans, according to Political Cortadito.
Hero told the Herald editorial board that she wanted to provide more help to seniors living on Social Security who can’t cover monthly rent and would like to see property taxes eliminated for homeowners 65 and older. And she told the Herald she would defend the UDB and back agriculture and agritourism.
Hero raised about $46,000 through the end of July, including $4,000 in self-loans, and spent $24,000.
None of her deep-pocketed former congressional employers donated to her campaign.