The race to turn into Miami’s subsequent mayor might technically be nonpartisan, however the politics surrounding the competition aren’t.
Republicans are hoping Miami metropolis supervisor Emilio Gonzalez helps them retain their nearly 30-year maintain on the mayor’s workplace, backed by President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Democrats hope former county commissioner Eileen Higgins can proceed their get together’s nationwide over-performance in particular elections.
Gonzalez and Higgins are competing in a Tuesday runoff to guide a cultural and tourism hub that can be the deliberate house of Trump’s future presidential library. A loss for Republicans in Miami could be a dent in ruby-red Florida and will add a new twist to the already fraught plan to construct Trump’s presidential library downtown.
While the function holds little formal energy in metropolis authorities, the Miami mayor serves as a high-profile ambassador for the town. Outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez tried to parlay the place into a run for president in 2023, which ended after solely two months.
Higgins led after the primary spherical of voting on November 4 with 35% of the vote to Gonzalez’s 19%.
Affordability has been a key difficulty all through the marketing campaign, particularly related in a single of the costliest cities within the nation. Capitalizing on the Democrats’ nationwide give attention to the subject as of late, Higgins helps constructing extra inexpensive housing. Gonzalez backs a Gov. Ron DeSantis-supported plan that may eradicate property taxes for main residences.
“My opponent is keen on building, building, building,” Gonzalez mentioned in an interview with NCS. “She wants to put a skyscraper in every corner … then calling it affordable housing, which is a misnomer, because very rarely is it truly affordable.”
Immigration additionally got here up ceaselessly in debates. Miami is house to a massive Latino inhabitants and the Krome immigrant detention center, which has gained notoriety for overcrowding and subpar circumstances.
Gonzalez mentioned in a debate final month he helps federal legislation enforcement rounding up “people who commit crimes.” Higgins, in the identical debate, denounced US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions in Miami as “inhumane and cruel” and criticized the detention center DeSantis opened and nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“This is the first year ever where residents have told me they’re afraid, right?” Higgins mentioned in an interview with NCS. “I can’t go an hour when I am at community events without meeting someone whose brother, sister, aunt, uncle, was either taken to Alligator Alcatraz or who knows where? They don’t even know where they are.”
A brand new mayor would take workplace amid an ongoing legal battle over the land the place Trump’s presidential library is meant to be constructed. Miami-Dade College voted for a second time this month to cede priceless downtown property to the muse for the library. The faculty is being sued by an activist who alleges it violated Florida’s open authorities legislation, and a choose briefly blocked the sale. A trial is scheduled for August.
Democrats are already driving on a new wave of momentum after a dominant efficiency in November and a current particular election in Tennessee’s seventh District, the place even with a loss they shrunk Trump’s 22-point 2024 margin to single digits.
A Higgins win would add much more enthusiasm to the get together proper earlier than turning the calendar to 2026 and the midterms.
Miami-Dade County, which encompasses Miami and a few of its surrounding suburbs, voted Republican in 2024 after lengthy being a Democratic stronghold. Trump turned the primary Republican presidential to win Miami-Dade since 1988. This swing was predicted in some ways by DeSantis’ important reelection margin there in 2022, beating Democrat Charlie Crist by 11 proportion factors.
The winner of Tuesday’s contest gained’t be the one mayor on the town. The metropolis of Miami and Miami-Dade County each elect mayors. Miami-Dade is led by is Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat though the place is formally nonpartisan. She oversees the entire of the county, together with coping with broader, county-wide points regarding Miami correct.