Eileen Higgins is also the first Democrat to hold the position in nearly 30 years.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Miami has a new elected mayor, and a historic one at that, when voters last night elected the city’s first female mayor, Eileen Higgins, a former county commissioner. She is also the first Democrat to hold this seat in nearly 30 years. She defeated Republican Emilio Gonzalez, who had the support of President Trump. For more, let’s turn now to Joshua Ceballos of member station WLRN. Hello Joshua.
JOSHUA CEBALLOS, BYLINE: Hello, Michel.
MARTIN: So tell us more about last night’s election results. I understand you were at Higgins’ watch party last night. How was it?
CEBALLOS: Yeah. It was a really exciting moment. I mean, Eileen Higgins won by 19 percentage points against her opponent, Emilio Gonzalez. I was there at the show party at the Miami Woman’s Club, and there was palpable excitement. You could tell people thought it was a huge moment, not just for the city, but for the rest of the country. Even though it was only a local mayoral race, it is being celebrated nationally as a big victory for Democrats.
MARTIN: You know, the mayor’s office is technically nonpartisan. At least the race is technically nonpartisan. So were there local issues that dominated, or was it still a national race?
CEBALLOS: Yeah. I mean, funny enough, the candidates were pretty close on the stage. They both talked about restoring order to City Hall, which has a reputation for being rather dysfunctional due to some political drama. They both talked about solving Miami’s high cost of living, which I think was a priority for many voters I spoke to throughout the election. And Higgins ran on critical issues at the local level: affordability, public transportation, protecting the local environment. But she also made some nods to more national and statewide issues, like protecting the LGBTQ+ community and being a home for immigrants. Gonzalez did not hold elected office, so there was no legislative record to which he could point, but his platform included cutting property taxes, a line that local Florida Republicans have championed.
MARTIN: How are both sides reacting to this? So let’s start with the Democrats.
CEBALLOS: Yeah. The party sees it as a huge victory and a real response to President Trump’s policies, particularly on immigration. After Higgins’ victory, I spoke with Laura Kelley, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. She said the victory was a rebuke to Trump and a sign that the Democratic Party is not dead in Florida.
LAURA KELLEY: It speaks to the moment. This speaks to how the country feels. And I hope that our elected representatives in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., listen to us in Miami and Miami Beach and make different choices.
CEBALLOS: Both candidates tried to run a fairly nonpartisan race, but they couldn’t stop things from becoming quite partisan when Trump endorsed Gonzalez. My colleague Daniel Rivero was at Gonzalez’s watch party, and local Republicans told him they thought it was a bad sign for their party ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
MARTIN: You know, Miami is a majority Latino city. It’s something like 70% Latino. Does this say anything about the Latino vote writ large? Does this say anything about a broader trend heading into these midterm elections next year?
CEBALLOS: That’s the big question. You know, the experts I spoke with were watching this race to see if the Latino vote would stop being overwhelmingly Republican after the first year of President Trump’s new term. Many areas of Miami were strong Trump supporters in the last election. But – this is what could happen – this result could signal a turning point. There is a sense that the president’s immigration policies, like ICE detentions and the rising cost of living, may have soured some voters toward Trump. And I should note that Eileen Higgins is the first non-Hispanic to hold this position since 1996.
MARTIN: This is Joshua Ceballos with WLRN in Miami. Joshua, thank you.
CEBALLOS: Thank you very much.
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