{"id":80079,"date":"2025-12-12T00:34:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80079\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:34:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:34:39","slug":"what-a-democrats-victory-in-the-miami-mayoral-election-may-mean-for-trump-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80079\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Democrat\u2019s victory in the Miami mayoral election may mean for Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Democrat Eileen Higgins\u2019 victory in the Miami mayoral race <\/a>marks a setback for Republican President Donald Trump, who endorsed her rival and has touted his 2024 win in the area as a testament to his appeal in Florida and particularly among Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n

Higgins, who will become the city\u2019s first female mayor, secured a decisive win of approximately 19 points over Trump\u2019s pick, Emilio Gonzalez, signaling a potential shift in voter sentiment.<\/p>\n

In becoming the first Democrat to lead the city of 487,000 in nearly 30 years, Higgins said she will explore legal ways to unwind an agreement between the city and the federal government that empowers police officers to conduct immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at all our legal options to ensure that our city police work for our neighborhoods and not on checking residents\u2019 papers,\u201d Higgins said in Spanish at a press conference Wednesday.<\/a><\/p>\n

While harshly criticizing Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, Higgins has been more measured than her counterpart in New York City, Zohran Mamdani, in her approach.<\/p>\n

Higgins\u2019 message for Trump<\/p>\n

Higgins\u2019 victory occurred on the same night that Trump delivered a speech in Pennsylvania meant to emphasize his focus on combating inflation. But the president appeared dismissive on an issue that has damaged his popularity, saying inflation was no longer a problem and that Democrats were using the term \u201caffordability\u201d as a \u201choax\u201d to hurt his reputation.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press asked Higgins after her win what she would tell Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hear what the residents have to say about affordability, it\u2019s real. They\u2019re facing expensive rent, expensive property insurance, costs of all sorts of things, especially even now the things they\u2019re buying in the stores due to the tariffs,\u201d she said. \u201cI think every leader in America needs to think deeply about what they can do to help get the affordability crisis under control for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the press conference on Wednesday, Higgins, however said that sometimes she and Trump have been in agreement, praising the president for maintaining funding for a new local transit project.<\/p>\n

Voters face \u2018frustration\u2019 and \u2018fear\u2019<\/p>\n

Higgins, a former county commissioner, commented on a shift among voters she noticed compared to when she ran in previous years, when people wanted the government to be run more efficiently and to finish projects from housing to transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first election where when I speak to our residents, it\u2019s not just about frustration, it\u2019s also about fear,\u201d Higgins said at the press briefing. \u201cThey\u2019ve never been afraid of their government before. And now they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins said she heard from a medical clinic that had to immediately fire 27 employees who lost work authorization when the Trump administration stripped legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 27 families without a breadwinner. And a health clinic that\u2019s short 27 employees to take care of people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want a strong border, we want a path to citizenship. We don\u2019t want law-abiding people to be ejected from our country, impoverishing their family and driving our economy into ruin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami may become home of the Trump presidential library<\/p>\n

Higgins could join the growing local opposition to Trump\u2019s presidential library, which Republicans have pushed to build in downtown Miami. Earlier this month, the Miami-Dade College board voted to donate a nearly 3-acre undeveloped lot, valued at over $67 million, located on the iconic Biscayne Boulevard. However, a judge had temporarily blocked the transfer while a lawsuit plays out.<\/p>\n

At a debate aired last month on Miami television station CBS 4, Higgins said that while it is \u201can honor\u201d to be home to a presidential library, she felt this was a \u201cland giveaway.\u201d She said the state could have sold the land and paid for things that have been cut such as food aid and money for transit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave away very valuable land to a billionaire for free,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami will host next year\u2019s G20 summit<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Trump was accompanied by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who Higgins will succeed, at the White House in announcing Miami will host next year\u2019s Group of 20 summit at his golf club in Doral, Florida, a suburb of greater Miami. He argued it was \u201cthe best location\u201d for the international gathering.<\/p>\n

Suarez said such gathering put the city \u201con the global map.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has been known for his public feuds with Democratic mayors and governors. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, had to confront a federal law enforcement intervention into her city launched by Trump. She announced last month that she would not seek reelection.<\/p>\n

At the press conference, Higgins was asked if she was scared Trump could retaliate in any way against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo tengo ning\u00fan miedo de \u00e9l,\u201d she said, Spanish for \u201cI am not scared of him, at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Democrat Eileen Higgins\u2019 victory in the Miami mayoral race marks a setback for Republican President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-80079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80079","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=80079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}