Democrat Eileen Higgins Flips Miami’s Mayoral Seat Held By Republicans For Over Decade

Democrat Eileen Higgins unseated Miami's mayoral seat Tuesday night in a runoff election, defeating Republican Emilio Gonzalez.

After initially failing to get more than 50% of the vote, Higgins and Gonzalez found themselves in a runoff election on Tuesday. Higgins received 36% of the vote in the November election, while Gonzalez received nearly 20%.

Higgins, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner, ultimately won the runoff with nearly 60% of the vote. She focused her campaign on local issues such as housing costs and affordability, and is also involved in the broader national debate over the Trump administration's immigration and deportation policies.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, has promised to eliminate the city's homestead tax and streamline the process for obtaining business permits. He also expressed support for federal immigration arrests targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes and said Higgins was making the election based entirely on Trump administration policies.

“They want to talk about things that have nothing to do with the city of Miami,” he said. said. “Why argue about national immigration policy? Next we'll talk about whether men should play women's sports.”

Fully reported unofficial results:
🔵 Eileen Higgins – 21,550 (59.3%)
🔴 Emilio Gonzalez – 14,799 (40.7%)

⬅️ 19% have moved left since the 2024 presidential election. pic.twitter.com/nwnrCnn7Gr

— Voting (@VoteHub) December 10, 2025

The race has attracted the attention of high-profile figures across the political spectrum. From the Democratic Partyformer US Ambassador to Japan and former Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuelformer Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego endorsed Higgins ahead of the runoff. On the Republican front, Gonzalez has received support from President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott. (RELATED: Much of Trump's 2024 Coalition Splintered, Posing Danger for GOP)

Giancarlo Sopo, a local conservative and political strategist in Miami, said the media's portrayal of the victory as the first Democratic victory in 30 years was “misleading.”

Reading the coverage of yesterday's elections in Miami, several things stand out:

First of all, I don't know where people get the idea that Miami has had Republican mayors for 30 years in a row. This is simply not true. Manny Diaz served as mayor throughout the 2000s. He ran as an independent candidate, but this… https://t.co/sb3a44B7K7

— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) December 10, 2025

“Manny Diaz was mayor throughout the 2000s. He ran as an independent, but it was well known that he was a Democrat, and he became chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. These elections were nonpartisan, often with two Republicans vying for the office, which makes the '30-year streak' language misleading,” he said.

Sopo also argued that the Trump administration's immigration policies and the recent influx of people into technology and finance brought on by the pandemic have played into the hands of the Democratic Party.

“People in Miami are genuinely fed up with trying to turn the city into the next Los Angeles or New York or some Sun Belt tech fraternity capital, and the local Republican leadership doesn't seem to care,” Sopo said.

Despite Trump's success in securing an 11-point victory in Miami-Dade County in the 2024 election, he narrowly lost in the city of Miami itself. In this city of about half a million residents, many of them Latino, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans slightly, Politico. reported.

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