December 10, 2025 9:27 AM ET

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

After originally failing to secure more than 50% of the vote, both Higgins and Gonzalez found themselves in a runoff election Tuesday. Higgins had captured 36% of the votes in the November election, while Gonzalez garnered nearly 20%.

Higgins, the former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, ended up winning the runoff with nearly 60% of the vote. She focused her campaign on local issues like housing costs and affordability, while also tapping into broader national debates on the Trump administration’s immigration and deportation policies.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, pledged to abolish the city’s homestead property tax and streamline the process for obtaining business permits. He also expressed support for federal immigration arrests targeting illegal migrants who had committed crimes, and argued that Higgins was making the election all about the Trump administration’s policies.

“They want to talk about things that have nothing to do with the city of Miami,” he said. “Why pick a fight about national immigration policy? Next, we are going to be talking about whether men should be in women’s sports.”

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

⬅️ 19% swing left from the 2024 presidential election pic.twitter.com/nwnrCnn7Gr

— VoteHub (@VoteHub) December 10, 2025

The race drew attention from high-profile individuals across the political spectrum. From the Democratic side, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego supported Higgins leading up to the runoff. On the Republican front, Gonzalez received endorsements from President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott. (RELATED: Big Chunk Of Trump’s 2024 Coalition Splits Off, Spelling Danger For GOP)

Giancarlo Sopo, a local Miami conservative and political strategist, pointed out that the media’s framing of the win as the first for Democrats in 30 years was “misleading.”

Reading coverage of last night’s election in Miami, a few things stand out:

First, I don’t know where people are getting that Miami’s had 30 straight years of Republican mayors. That’s simply not true. Manny Diaz was mayor throughout the 2000s. He ran as an independent, but it… 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 he was a Democrat, and he went on to chair the Florida Democratic Party. These races have been non-partisan, often with two Republicans vying for the job, which makes the ’30-year streak’ framing misleading,” he said.

Sopo also argued that the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the recent, pandemic-driven influx of people in tech and finance played into the Democratic Party’s hands.

“People in Miami are genuinely fed up with the effort to turn the city into the new LA, NYC, or some tech-bro capital of the Sun Belt, and local Republican leadership doesn’t seem to care,” Sopo said.

Despite Trump’s success in securing an 11-point win in Miami-Dade County in the 2024 election, he narrowly lost within the city of Miami itself. This city, home to approximately half a million residents, many of whom are Hispanic, has a slightly larger number of registered Democrats compared to Republicans, Politico reported.

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