{"id":88525,"date":"2025-12-18T22:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88525\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:23:14","slug":"democrat-eileen-higgins-sworn-in-as-miamis-first-female-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88525\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Eileen Higgins sworn in as Miami’s first female mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Democrat Eileen Higgins<\/a> was sworn in Thursday as Miami\u2019s first female mayor, two weeks after defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Higgins also becomes the first Democrat in almost 30 years to lead the city of 487,000 people. She replaces Republican Francis Suarez<\/a>, who has served as the city\u2019s mayor since 2017. Higgins previously served as a Miami-Dade County commissioner, representing much of the city of Miami.<\/p>\n

Trump endorsed Emilio Gonzalez during the campaign, touting his 2024 win<\/a> in Miami-Dade County as a testament to his appeal among Hispanic voters. Higgins, 61, won the election by about 19 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Higgins\u2019 parents joined her on stage at Miami Dade College in downtown Miami as she took her oath of office. She thanked them, saying they raised her with values. \u201cGet up everyday, work hard and do what\u2019s right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Higgins also thanked Suarez for his service to the city, noting that he \u201celevated the city\u2019s profile worldwide.\u201d <\/p>\n

She made a career switch when she was in her 40s, after working as a mechanical engineer. She joined the Peace Corps and then became a diplomat before returning to Miami and serving as a county commissioner.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"CORRECTS<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why I am here. To serve. To show up every day and to make your lives better,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile a government cannot love, it can act lovingly. And we will act lovingly by listening to what the people of this city ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n


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She noted that she will work to make housing affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job now is to deliver on your choices,\u201d Higgins said, speaking in both English and Spanish. \u201cA city defined not by what we say but by what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Census figures show that more than 55% of Miami\u2019s population is foreign born, with 45% coming from Cuba. <\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Democrat Eileen Higgins was sworn in Thursday as Miami\u2019s first female mayor, two weeks after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1571,48034,409,3674,4077,1882,28,15579,477,41316,30587,123,125,124,99,33601,1110,30276],"class_list":["post-88525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-affordable-housing","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-eileen-higgins","tag-emilio-gonzalez","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-francis-suarez","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-politics","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88525","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=88525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}