The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is mounting a major push in Miami ahead of the city’s Dec. 9 mayoral runoff, announcing a bilingual get-out-the-vote blitz to support former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins.

The move comes as the technically nonpartisan race is rapidly nationalizing, with both parties now pouring resources into what some expect will be a low-turnout contest.

In a press note, the DNC outlined a multilayered organizing program to boost Higgins’ chances against Emilio González, a former Miami City Manager who was on President Donald Trump’s 2016 transition team.

It will include recruiting and training bilingual volunteers, activating the party’s national distributed volunteer network, and hosting English- and Spanish-language virtual phone banks aimed at driving turnout among Miami’s diverse electorate.

“When you organize everywhere, you can win anywhere — including here in Florida, where Democrats are fighting to flip Miami’s mayorship for the first time in nearly 30 years,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a Thursday statement.

“The DNC is all-in to elect Eileen Higgins and ensure Miami families have a champion who is fighting for them, not Donald Trump.”

A Democrat-aligned candidate has not won Miami’s mayoralty in nearly three decades. The last Democrat elected Mayor — Xavier Suarez, who ran for the job again this year as an independent — took office in 1997.

Higgins, a thrice-elected County Commissioner, finished first in the Nov. 4 Primary, topping a 13-candidate field with 36% of the vote and outperforming González by nearly 17 percentage points. Her campaign has centered on housing affordability, reducing costs for working families, and improving transit and flood mitigation.

González, endorsed Sunday by Trump on Truth Social, has consolidated Republican support.

Miami-Dade GOP Chair Kevin Cooper said the local party is mobilizing aggressively and expects prominent Republican figures — including Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who have also endorsed González — to join efforts on his campaign’s behalf.

“I think you’re going to see people of statewide and even national importance getting out the vote for Emilio,” Cooper told POLITICO, calling the race “very much winnable” for González.

The DNC announcement also highlighted Democratic gains nationwide in 2025, noting that Democrats have won or overperformed in 219 of 247 races this year — nearly 90% — and pointed to overperformance in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional District Special Elections earlier this year.

Under Martin’s leadership, the committee is funneling $22,500 per month into traditionally Republican states as part of its Red State Fund strategy to rebuild competitiveness across the South.

For Democrats, a win in Miami would signal that national investment in Florida — a state Republicans have increasingly dominated, with a current 1.42 million-voter advantage — could still pay dividends, while also testing Latino voter trends as Trump’s approval ratings among Hispanics have dipped, according to recent polling.

For Republicans, a González win would reinforce Florida’s rightward trajectory and show continuing Latino support for Trump-aligned candidates.

Despite the national attention, both campaigns continue to stress their nonpartisan focus on municipal issues. González and Higgins have repeatedly emphasized affordability, infrastructure resilience, transit and housing pressures, and the constraints of governing a growing coastal city.

Miami’s runoff is expected to draw limited turnout, making field operations pivotal.

If elected, Higgins would also become Miami’s first woman Mayor.