Miami’s newly elected Democratic mayor says residents are afraid of the federal government
Democrat Eileen Higgins’ victory in the Miami mayoral race marks a setback for Republican President Donald Trump, who endorsed her rival and has touted his 2024 win in the area as a testament to his appeal in Florida and particularly among Hispanic voters.
Higgins, who will become the city’s first female mayor, secured a decisive win of approximately 19 points over Trump’s pick, Emilio Gonzalez, signaling a potential shift in voter sentiment.
In becoming the first Democrat to lead the city of 487,000 in nearly 30 years, Higgins said she will explore legal ways to unwind an agreement between the city and the federal government that empowers police officers to conduct immigration enforcement.
“We need to look at all our legal options to ensure that our city police work for our neighborhoods and not on checking residents’ papers,” Higgins said in Spanish at a press conference Wednesday.
While harshly criticizing Trump’s immigration crackdown, Higgins has been more measured than her counterpart in New York City, Zohran Mamdani, in her approach.
Higgins’ victory occurred on the same night that Trump delivered a speech in Pennsylvania meant to emphasize his focus on combating inflation. But the president appeared dismissive on an issue that has damaged his popularity, saying inflation was no longer a problem and that Democrats were using the term “affordability” as a “hoax” to hurt his reputation.
The Associated Press asked Higgins after her win what she would tell Trump.
“When I hear what the residents have to say about affordability, it’s real. They’re facing expensive rent, expensive property insurance, costs of all sorts of things, especially even now the things they’re buying in the stores due to the tariffs,” she said. “I think every leader in America needs to think deeply about what they can do to help get the affordability crisis under control for the American people.”
At the press conference on Wednesday, Higgins, however said that sometimes she and Trump have been in agreement, praising the president for maintaining funding for a new local transit project.
Higgins, a former county commissioner, commented on a shift among voters she noticed compared to when she ran in previous years, when people wanted the government to be run more efficiently and to finish projects from housing to transportation.
“This is the first election where when I speak to our residents, it’s not just about frustration, it’s also about fear,” Higgins said at the press briefing. “They’ve never been afraid of their government before. And now they are.” [Continue reading…]