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Voters in Miami, Florida, cast ballots Tuesday in a runoff election for mayor in a race that’s grabbed plenty of national attention in recent weeks as Democrats aim to end a decades-long losing streak in red-leaning Florida.
Democrat Eileen Higgins, a former county commissioner, is facing off against Republican Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager backed by President Donald Trump.
While the election is technically nonpartisan, the ballot box face-off has become the latest showdown this year between Democrats and Republicans, with both parties pouring in resources.
And Democrats, energized by last month’s decisive 2025 election victories and by last week’s double-digit overperformance in a special election in a red-leaning congressional district in Tennessee, are aiming for victory in Miami for an office they haven’t held in 30 years.
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Democratic County Commissioner Eileen Higgins and Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed Republican candidate Emilio Gonzalez will advance to a runoff Dec. 9 that will determine Miami’s next mayor after no candidate received 50% of votes. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images; Rebecca Blackwell; The Associated Press)
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and allied groups have invested in the race.
DNC Chair Kent Martin told Fox News Digital that following last week’s “historic overperformance in Tennessee and the record Democratic momentum across the country this year,” the DNC is now “laser focused” on Miami’s mayoral runoff.
“The energy is on Democrats’ side and the DNC is all-in support of Eileen Higgins from now until Election Day,” Martin emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital last week.
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Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Florida has been helping Gonzalez.
And Trump, over the weekend, took to social media to try and boost Gonzalez.
“Miami’s Mayor Race is Tuesday. It is a big and important race!!! Vote for Republican Gonzalez,” the president wrote.
City of Miami mayoral candidate Emilio González speaks during a press conference outside his home on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Florida was once the largest of the general election battleground states, but has shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points in 2022, and Trump carried the state by 13 points in last year’s presidential election victory.
But Miami remains a rare blue oasis in the Sunshine State. Trump narrowly lost the city in last year’s presidential election, although the president won the wider Miami-Dade County by 11 points.
Higgins, a mechanical engineer and former Peace Corps director in Belize, focused on the issue of affordability and of making local government work better and faster during her campaign.
Eileen Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner who is running for Miami mayor, speaks to supporters preparing to go canvas on her behalf, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Miami City Hall in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)
González, a veteran and senior adviser at an asset management firm, spotlighted the fight against overdevelopment and called for the elimination of property taxes for primary homes, as he bid for mayor.
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Higgins captured 36% of the vote in the Nov. 4 election, with Gonzalez coming in second at 19%, in the multi-candidate field.
The runoff winner will succeed term-limited Republican Mayor Francis Suarez, who grabbed national attention two years ago as he briefly and unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination.
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