Topline
Democrat Eileen Higgins has won Miami’s mayoral election, according to multiple reports, making her the first Democrat to win a Miami mayoral race this century and marking a notable shift after President Donald Trump made his own history last year with a double-digit win in Miami-Dade County.
Eileen Higgins, the Democratic Miami mayoral candidate was the clear frontrunner in the first round of voting in November.
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Key Facts
Higgins held 59% of the vote with all 139 precincts counted, according to the Miami Herald, ahead of the 41% support of Republican former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, who Trump endorsed in November
Higgins, the former Miami-Dade County commissioner, won 35.9% of the vote in November—about 16 points ahead of Gonzalez.
Miami’s mayoral election allowed multiple candidates to run in the crowded first round, and another Democratic candidate, former Miami city commissioner Ken Russell, finished in third place with about 17.5% of the vote, according to the city’s official election results.
Higgins’ victory makes her the first Democrat elected to the mayoralty since 1997.
Why Is Miami’s Mayoral Race Important?
The city of Miami and the broader Miami-Dade County are important territory for Trump’s winning coalition of voters in 2024, and Tuesday’s election could serve as a bellwether to indicate the GOP’s prospects in the 2026 midterm elections. Miami is home to one of the largest Cuban American populations in the country, and Trump notably overperformed with Hispanic voters in the 2024 presidential election, losing the vote to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by only three percentage points among the demographic, according to Pew Research’s data. He previously lost the demographic group by 38 points to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and by 25 points to former President Joe Biden in 2020. Trump also became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Miami-Dade County since former President George H.W. Bush in 1988. The president has steadily improved his popularity in the region over the last three presidential elections—he lost Miami-Dade County to Clinton by 30 points in 2016, and again to Biden by 7.3 percentage points in 2020. He nearly reversed these results in 2024, winning Miami-Dade County with 55.4% of the vote, ahead of Harris’ 43.9%.
