Eileen Higgins

Eileen Higgins (born June 30, 1964) is an American politician and former diplomat serving as the 44th mayor of Miami since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a member of the Miami-Dade County Commission from 2018 to 2025.

In the 2025 Miami mayoral election, Higgins defeated Emilio Gonzalez in a runoff. She is the first woman mayor, the first non-Hispanic mayor since 1996, and the first member of the Florida Democratic Party to be elected mayor since 1997.

Early life, education, and career Higgins was born in Dayton, Ohio and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Higgins moved to Miami in the early 2000s, where she became active in local community and advocacy groups.

Before entering electoral politics, Higgins worked in international development and consulting with a focus on transportation and infrastructure projects in Latin America. she became Country Director of the Peace Corps in Belize. and was re-elected again in 2024 without opposition.

In May 2022, Higgins announced her candidacy for Florida's 27th congressional district. However, she ended her candidacy days later citing her desire to avoid an "unnecessary" Democratic primary between Annette Taddeo and herself.

Among other achievements, in October 2025, Higgins presented the commission's funding for the Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 Museum and Library in Little Havana.

Higgins's 2025 mayoral campaign necessitated her resignation in November due to the resign to run law in Florida. After filing by petition to run for the office in August 2025, Higgins also tendered a resignation from the commission that would take effect on November 5, 2025. At the time of her departure, she was the commission's longest-serving member, with Ken Russell being the only other Democrat among the candidates characterized as being in a competitive position per polling.

Higgins qualified for the ballot by submitting 3,000 signatures in support of her candidacy on the ballot; as opposed to the alternate option of qualifying for the ballot by paying a fee. She touted the collection of signatures as a demonstration of her candidacy enjoying both sizable and organized support.

Before the first round of voting, Higgins was considered one of the leading candidates in the election. Higgins had a strong lead in the first round, but failed to reach a majority of the vote. She faced Emilio T. Gonzalez on December 9, 2025, and won the election with 59.3% of the vote. She is the first female mayor of Miami. She is also the first Democratic mayor and the first non-Hispanic mayor since the 1990s.

Tenure

Electoral history