{"id":340021,"date":"2025-12-10T00:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340021\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T00:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:48:07","slug":"eileen-higgins-wins-miami-mayoral-runoff-breaking-30-year-democratic-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340021\/","title":{"rendered":"Eileen Higgins wins Miami mayoral runoff, breaking 30-year Democratic drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

City of Miami voters have chosen former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins<\/a> as their next mayor. Higgins defeated former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez<\/a> in Tuesday’s runoff election.<\/p>\n

Higgins’ victory marks the\u00a0first time in more than 30 years<\/a>\u00a0that Miami has elected a Democrat as mayor. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Higgins secured 59% of the vote to Gonzalez’s nearly 41%, according to unofficial results<\/a> from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections. The win marks an end to a competitive race<\/a> that began with a crowded 13-person field.<\/p>\n

The campaign centered on issues such as immigration<\/a>, housing<\/a>, flooding<\/a>, city growth, and the tone of leadership Miami needs. Higgins and Gonzalez faced off in a CBS News Miami debate<\/a> moderated by Jim DeFede on Nov. 25, giving voters a chance to compare their visions for the city.<\/p>\n

While the race was officially nonpartisan, Higgins had the backing of prominent Democrats, while Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Trump, endorsed Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

Higgins’ vision for Miami<\/p>\n

Higgins served eight years on the Miami-Dade County Commission and campaigned on restoring public trust and bringing what she described as calmer, more collaborative leadership to City Hall. Affordable housing<\/a> was a cornerstone of her platform. She pledged to utilize city-owned land to build housing for working families and criticized Miami’s rapid growth without corresponding improvements in services.<\/p>\n

She also called for a full review of city spending and proposed updating regulations to allow permeable pavement and accelerate park construction to improve drainage citywide. Higgins supports expanding the City Commission<\/a> from five to nine members, arguing that Miami’s legislative body is unusually small compared to other major cities and leaves many communities underrepresented.<\/p>\n

On immigration enforcement<\/a>, Higgins voiced strong concerns, calling recent actions in Miami “inhumane and cruel.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higgins vowed to work with the Trump administration on issues where they can find common ground, but warned, “When we disagree, I’ll make my voice heard.”<\/p>\n

What’s next?<\/p>\n

Higgins will take office with a mission to address housing affordability, climate resilience and government transparency. Her win signals a shift in Miami’s political landscape and sets the stage for significant policy changes in the years ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Miami voters have chosen former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins as their next mayor. Higgins defeated former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,2821,3,4165,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-340021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-south-florida","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}