A Democrat takes on Trump-backed candidate for Miami mayor in a key Hispanic battleground

MIAMI (AP) — A candidate backed by President Donald Trump and one supported by national Democratic figures face off Tuesday to be the next Miami mayor, in this sun-kissed city shaped by immigrants where both major parties are watching for a glimpse into their standing ahead of next year's midterms, particularly among Hispanic voters.

If elected, Eileen Higgins would become the first Democrat to lead the city of 487,000 in nearly three decades. A win by Emilio Gonzalez could help calm the GOP as it seeks to maintain a grip in Miami and show its strength in a Hispanic-majority place.

The Miami mayoral runoff — one of the final electoral battles before the 2026 midterms — comes on the heels of Trump’s influence in shifting the city’s political landscape markedly to the right. That has made Higgins’ candidacy a test for Democratic prospects in Florida and among Latinos in other places.

Big-name Florida Republicans such as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott have weighed in for Gonzalez, the former city manager, in the otherwise nonpartisan race. Well-known Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have joined the campaign trail to help Higgins, a Democrat who served on the county commission before winning a runoff spot last month.

A Democratic victory would add to the party’s momentum heading into a midterm election following successes in November's elections and a closer-than-expected loss in a special election last week for a Tennessee congressional district that Trump won by double digits last year. The Miami contest is in an area that has increasingly shifted toward Republicans and the site where Trump intends to build his presidential library.

Higgins has proudly identified as “La Gringa,” a term Spanish speakers use for white Americans, but she also speaks Spanish and has represented the Cuban enclave of Little Havana as part of a district that leans conservative. Higgins has focused her campaign on local issues such as the cost of housing, but has also mentioned national ones, including the arrest of immigrants under the Trump administration in a city with sizable Hispanic and foreign-born populations.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez has campaigned on repealing Miami’s homestead property tax and streamlining permits for businesses. A former director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under Republican President George W. Bush, he said during a debate that he supported immigration arrests against those who committed crimes. When pressed that most of those arrested had not committed violent offenses, he said it was “a federal issue.”

Miami is Florida’s second-most populous city, behind Jacksonville, and considered the epicenter of the state’s diverse culture. It’s part of Miami-Dade County, which Trump flipped last year, handily defeating Democrat Kamala Harris after losing the county to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. He had lost by 30 percentage points here to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Rahm Emanuel, left, poses with former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and candidate for Miami mayor Eileen Higgins, center, in advance of a runoff election Tuesday, in Miami Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

FILE - Florida Gov. Rick Scott, right, laughs with Emilio Gonzalez, director and chief executive officer of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, center, and Jose "Pepe" Diaz, Miami-Dade County commissioner, left, after a news conference at Miami International Airport, Aug. 19, 2015, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and candidate for Miami mayor Eileen Higgins speaks with supporters in advance of a runoff election Tuesday, in Miami Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

FILE - This combination of images shows candidates for mayor of Miami, from left, Republican Emilio Gonzalez and Democrat Eileen Higgins. (AP Photo/File)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said Monday that he had ordered Honduran authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hernández was released from federal prison in the United States last week after Trump pardoned him. Hernández had been sentenced in U.S. federal court last year to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the United States.

Hernández went from supposed U.S. ally in the war on drugs to the subject of a U.S. extradition request shortly after he left office in 2022. He was detained and sent to the U.S. by current President Xiomara Castro of the social democrat LIBRE party.

Zelaya included a photo of the two-year-old order signed by a Supreme Court magistrate for alleged fraud and money laundering charges. The order says that it must be executed “in the case that the accused is freed by United States authorities.”

Dozens of Honduran officials and politicians were implicated in the so-called Pandora case in which Honduran prosecutors alleged government funds were diverted through a network on nongovernmental organizations to political parties, including Hernández's 2013 presidential campaign.

A lawyer for Hernández, Renato Stabile, said in an email that, “This is obviously a strictly political move on behalf of the defeated Libre party to try to intimidate President Hernandez as they are being kicked out of power in Honduras. It is shameful and a desperate piece of political theatre and these charges are completely baseless.”

Zelaya had said after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández that his office would have to take action to end impunity.

Hernández’s wife said after his release that the former president was in an undisclosed location for his safety.

The drama comes while Honduras is still waiting to find out who its next president will be.

Trump endorsed Nasry Asfura, a former Tegucigalpa mayor from Hernández's conservative National Party. Asfura was leading Salvador Nasralla, also a conservative from the Liberal Party, by barely a percentage point as the vote count slowly advanced.

An Asfura victory could potentially smooth the way for Hernández's eventual return to Honduras. Nasralla has made fighting corruption the centerpiece of his campaign and has said Hernández stole the 2017 election from him in a vote that was full of irregularities.

Hernández always denied any wrongdoing while in office and insisted he was among the strongest antidrug allies of the United States.

Trump had announced his intention to pardon Hernández just days before Honduras' national elections, throwing a new element into a close contest. While some Hondurans remain nostalgic for Hernández's two terms in office, many were shocked that a man convicted of drug trafficking in a closely watched trial could suddenly be released early in his sentence.

Trump said Hondurans had requested the pardon for Hernández and that after looking at his case he decided Hernández had been unfairly treated by prosecutors.

A screen shows former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who published a message on TikTok thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for pardoning him, at a coffee shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Soldiers stand guard by farmers protesting President Donald Trump's pardon of Honduras' former President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Farmers protest against President Donald Trump's pardon of Honduras' former President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

FILE - Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday Nov. 1, 2021. Andy Buchanan/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from right, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez, File)