{"id":41154,"date":"2025-11-10T17:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/41154\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:57:08","slug":"south-florida-afl-cio-backs-eileen-higgins-for-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/41154\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida AFL-CIO backs Eileen Higgins for Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is heading into the runoff race for Miami Mayor with a new endorsement from the South Florida AFL-CIO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The organization, which represents thousands of Miami workers and more than 250,000 people<\/a> across Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, cited Higgins\u2019 support of labor interests as key to earning its backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough her record of service, Commissioner Eileen Higgins has proven time and again that she\u2019s a true champion for Miami\u2019s workers and families,\u201d South Florida AFL-CIO President Jeffery Mitchell said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom her years as County Commissioner to her campaign for Mayor, Eileen has consistently championed fair pay, safe working conditions, and respect for every worker. We know she will continue fighting to make Miami a city that works for everyone. We look forward to mobilizing our members in the coming weeks to secure her spot as the next Mayor of Miami and ensure that workers have a leader who shows up, listens, and gets results.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a County Commissioner, Higgins spearheaded efforts like the\u00a0MetroCenter project<\/a>\u00a0to expand affordable housing on underutilized county land while preserving historic buildings and workforce housing.<\/p>\n

She also worked to successfully secure hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funds for local transit and infrastructure improvements and backed legislation to expand Miami-Dade\u2019s\u00a0living wage requirements<\/a>, improve workplace safety at Miami International Airport and provide\u00a0paid sick leave<\/a>\u00a0to workers.<\/p>\n

The AFL-CIO also backed her re-election campaign<\/a> last year. Its endorsement of her in the Miami Mayor\u2019s race joins others from union groups including 1199SEIU<\/a>, UNITE HERE Local 355<\/a>,\u00a0SAVE Action PAC<\/a>,\u00a0LiUNA Local 1652<\/a> and\u00a0SEIU 32BJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advocacy groups including\u00a0Equality Florida Action PAC<\/a>,\u00a0EMILY\u2019s List<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ruth\u2019s List Florida<\/a> are also supporting her, as are Miami-Dade Mayor\u00a0Daniella Levine Cava, Miami Gardens Sen.\u00a0Shevrin Jones, Miami Rep.\u00a0Ashley Gantt\u00a0and South Miami Mayor\u00a0Javier Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply honored to once again receive the endorsement of the hardworking men and women of the South Florida AFL-CIO,\u201d Higgins said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking people are the backbone of our city \u2014 the teachers, bus drivers, sanitation workers, construction crews, and healthcare workers who make Miami run every single day. As Mayor, I will fight to make sure they have fair wages, safe workplaces, and a city government that treats them with the respect they deserve. Together, we will build a stronger, more affordable Miami that works for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins, who resigned from the County Commission on Nov. 5 in accordance with Florida\u2019s resign-to-run law, is competing in a Dec. 9 runoff for Miami Mayor against former City Manager Emilio Gonz\u00e1lez after neither secured more than half the votes in the city\u2019s Nov. 4 election. They topped 11 other candidates<\/a>, with Higgins taking 36% and Gonz\u00e1lez capturing 19.5% of the vote, respectively.<\/p>\n

Internal polling<\/a> shows Higgins with a high likelihood of winning the runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is heading into the runoff race for Miami Mayor with a new endorsement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3674,3675,4077,28,30,29,27352,123,3677,27353,1064,373,27354],"class_list":{"0":"post-41154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-eileen-higgins","9":"tag-election-2025","10":"tag-emilio-gonzalez","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-jeffrey-mitchell","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-miami-mayor","17":"tag-miami-mayors-race","18":"tag-miami-dade","19":"tag-miami-dade-county","20":"tag-south-florida-afl-cio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}