Democrat Eileen Higgins has received the Miami mayor’s race, NBC Information initiatives, giving the social gathering management of the workplace for the primary time in virtually three a long time in one other victory for Democrats forward of subsequent 12 months’s pivotal midterm elections.
Higgins, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner, received 59% of the vote to 41% for Republican Emilio González, a businessman and former metropolis supervisor who was endorsed by President Donald Trump. González conceded Tuesday night time, his marketing campaign confirmed.
“Tonight, the folks of Miami made historical past. Collectively, we turned the web page on years of chaos and corruption and opened the door to a brand new period for our metropolis — one outlined by moral, accountable management that delivers actual outcomes for the folks,” Higgins stated in a press release Tuesday night time.
Whereas the Miami mayor’s race is technically nonpartisan, the Republican-affiliated candidate has received each election since 2008, and an impartial candidate received earlier than then, locking Democrats out of the workplace since their final win in 1997. However whereas Miami-Dade has moved dramatically towards Republicans in the previous couple of elections, Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly carried town itself final 12 months.
Each candidates centered their campaigns on breaking from the earlier mayoral administrations in Miami and addressing voters’ financial considerations whereas pitching totally different options, however the race grew to become nationalized within the ultimate weeks. And it hinged on acquainted themes that can play an enormous position in deciding the 2026 elections: affordability, Trump’s weakened political standing and the way his controversial deportation agenda is taking part in in a metropolis with a major Hispanic inhabitants.
Higgins leaned on her position on the county fee to border herself as centered on quality-of-life points like inexpensive housing, infrastructure and streamlining metropolis processes in a means she stated would assist save town, and residents, cash.
“There are various approaches to affordability that native governments have in their very own fingers regardless that we aren’t accountable for tariffs — which by the way in which is creating an enormous affordability disaster,” she instructed NBC Information the day earlier than the election, in a reference to Trump’s broad tariff coverage.
She was additionally deeply vital of Trump — and González by proxy, given Trump’s endorsement — over his deportation agenda, telling NBC Information that Hispanic and Haitian voters have been telling her they’re “afraid of their authorities.”
Regardless of Higgins’ messaging, González didn’t run as a Trump acolyte. As an alternative, he argued he was the candidate centered on native points like combating overdevelopment, and he aligned himself with GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to finish homestead property taxes to ease the price of residing. González deflected criticism of Trump’s immigration insurance policies by arguing that’s a nationwide concern over which he has no say.
In an interview Tuesday night time with WPLG-TV in Miami, González stated he known as Higgins to want her effectively, including that she ran a “great marketing campaign.”
“If she’s profitable, Miami is profitable,” he stated.
The race drew elevated nationwide consideration within the ultimate weeks, significantly after Democrats made features however nonetheless misplaced in a Tennessee particular election in a vacant congressional district this month. The Democratic Nationwide Committee took an lively curiosity within the mayor’s race, sending organizational assist to spice up Higgins, and distinguished Democrats with potential aspirations for larger workplace — Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — despatched their assist, too.
Republicans zeroed in on the race, as effectively, hoping to carry the seat and push again in opposition to a string of GOP candidates underperforming their 2024 marks in particular Home elections, the current governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia and different downballot races.
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