Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayor’s race on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to lead the city of Miami. She is also the first Democrat to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak in the city.
“Tonight, the people of Miami made history,” Higgins said in a statement after the results were announced.
She said she would try to turn the more ceremonial role of mayor into a full-time job and not take on other work, something that raised ethical concerns for the current mayor, term-limited Francis Suarez.
“I do not have outside employment now. I was a full-time commissioner. I’m going to be a full-time mayor,” Higgins said as the interviewer continued to press her about whether that meant not accepting any outside employment.
Who is Eileen Higgins?
Eileen Higgins, 61, is a Democrat who scripted history as the first woman to be elected as mayor of the city of Miami.
She previously served as the Miami-Dade County Commissioner. A mechanical engineer by training, with an MBA from Cornell University, she is a former Peace Corps director in Belize and a former diplomat in the US State Department.
She pledged to centre her administration on practical concerns, and according to her LinkedIn profile, is nationally known for innovative policy work in transportation, artificial intelligence, and housing affordability.
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 had told the AP.
Higgins, who speaks Spanish, represented a district that leans conservative and includes the Cuban neighbourhood of Little Havana.
Eileen Higgins: Political pitch
Eileen Higgins spoke frequently in the Hispanic-majority city about US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying she has heard of many people in Miami who were worried about family members being detained.
Her pitch to voters included finding city-owned land that could be turned into affordable housing and cutting unnecessary spending.
Higgins has spoken about Miami’s signing on to a federal programme that delegates immigration authority to local police, county sheriffs, and state agencies, and said she would explore legal options to unwind that decision, aiming to rebuild trust between residents and law enforcement.
“When we start to enforce whatever shenanigans is coming out of the federal government to just randomly pick people up, we could erode that trust,” she said.
