WASHINGTON: Miami voters elected Eileen Higgins as the Florida city’s new mayor on Tuesday, making her the first Democrat to hold the office in nearly 30 years.
Higgins received about 60 percent of votes in the runoff election, according to CNN and the Miami Herald newspaper, defeating Emilio T. Gonzalez, a Republican candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Despite winning by a double-digit margin, turnout in the off-year election was low, with only about 20 percent of registered voters participating.
With its high Latino population, Miami politics has been dominated by Republicans of Cuban descent for much of the past three decades.
Trump, who frequently weekends at his Mar-a-Lago Club — located about 107 kilometers north of Miami — won the state of Florida’s electoral votes in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
