MIAMI — Miami Mayor-elect Eileen Higgins held a news conference on Wednesday morning following her 18-point victory in Tuesday’s runoff election, in which she proclaimed that “residents decided to embark upon a different direction.”
Higgins, 61, will become Miami’s first woman mayor. While officially a non-partisan election, the former county commissioner also became the first Democrat to hold the office in decades and the first non-Hispanic candidate elected mayor since Stephen P. Clark in 1993.
“I am so honored that our incredibly beautiful, diverse community selected me to take on this path in the coming years,” she said on Tuesday, promising to ensure the city “continues to deliver on the promise of the Magic City.”
Higgins said she intends to be at the center of a “city government that focuses on getting things done.”
“That’s going to mean for me a lot of work getting in there, in the administration and looking for ways that the city can become more efficient, can serve its residents better, can make sure that we’re operating a cost effective manner, so that the people who live here get the government they deserve ― a government that treats them as if they are customers," Higgins said.
She promised to build more affordable housing in the city by, in part, modernizing the city’s “terrible” permitting system and identifying city-owned land that could be used for housing. She also denounced “disrespectful” national rhetoric about immigrants.
“We are an immigrant city,” she said. “We have always been an immigrant city.”
Saying that she will explore ways to limit the impact of a recently-signed agreement to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration, Higgins said, “There’s no reason police in the city of Miami should be doing the job of federal law enforcement.”
During the campaign, Higgins spoke frequently in the Hispanic-majority city about President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying she has heard of many people in Miami who were worried about family members being detained. She campaigned as a proud Democrat despite the race being officially nonpartisan and beat Trump-backed candidate Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager, who said he called Higgins to congratulate her.
The unusually heavy partisan involvement in the race drew national attention as Democrats sought to portray the election as a referendum on Trump, whose approval ratings are flagging.
Higgins, who speaks Spanish, represented a district that leans conservative and includes the Little Havana neighborhood. When she first entered politics in 2018, she chose to present herself to voters as “La Gringa,” a term Spanish speakers use for white Americans, because many people did not know how to pronounce her name.
“It just helps people understand who I am, and you know what? I am a ‘gringa,’ so, what am I going to do, deny it?” she told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Higgins, speaking on Wednesday, promised to work with the city commission. She said she intends to leave the drama that plagued Miami City Hall behind.
“The era of commissioners yelling at one another and threatening to punch one another is going to stop,” she said. “We have a new dais. We have new ideas and we certainly have people (who) are quieter and behave, in this case, in a more gentlemanly manner.”
So far, a date has not yet been announced for Higgins’ swearing in.
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
