Democrat wins Miami mayor's race for the first time in nearly 30 years

[LetMyPeopleVote]

13. MaddowBlog-Democrats score big wins in Florida and Georgia, as the GOP's election woes continue

The more Donald Trump and his party pretend they don’t have an electoral problem, the more Republicans lose winnable elections.

Republicans keep saying they don’t have a political problem. They also keep losing elections.

Miami’s mayoral race was big, but Dems flipping a state House seat in Georgia was just as notable. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-12-10T13:59:55.954Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/democrats-score-big-wins-in-florida-and-georgia-as-the-gops-election-woes-continue

While this was technically a nonpartisan contest, Democrats backed Eileen Higgins, a former county commissioner, while Republicans supported Emilio González, a former city manager. Trump eagerly endorsed the latter, and the day before the election, the president wrote on his social media platform, “Miami’s Mayor Race is Tuesday. It is a big and important race!!! Vote for Republican Gonzalez. He is FANTASTIC! … MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

It didn’t work. The Miami Herald reported:

Democrat Eileen Higgins has defeated Trump-backed opponent Emilio González in Tuesday night’s runoff for Miami mayor, with the former Miami-Dade commissioner edging out the former city manager with nearly 60% of the vote, according to preliminary election night results.

A raucous crowd danced to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ as Higgins stood alongside family and supporters onstage at the Miami Woman’s Club, a symbolic location as Higgins becomes Miami’s first female mayor.

The race wasn’t especially close: Despite Trump’s intervention on González’s behalf, Higgins appears to have won by roughly 18 points.....

And in case that weren’t quite enough to get GOP officials’ attention, on the same day, Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a state House seat in Georgia, scoring an unexpected upset in a district Trump won last year by 12 points.

The results come on the heels of last week’s congressional special election in Tennessee, where Democrats overperformed in a district Trump won by 22 points.

They also come a month after Democrats dominated in the 2025 elections, following a year in which Democrats have consistently overperformed in ways that should make Republicans quite nervous ahead of the 2026 midterm election cycle.