What a Democrat's victory in the Miami mayoral election may mean for Trump

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What a Democrat's victory in the Miami mayoral election may mean for Trump

2025-12-11 05:15 Last Updated At：05:20

MIAMI (AP) — 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.”

Higgins said she heard from a medical clinic that had to immediately fire 27 employees who lost work authorization when the Trump administration stripped legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.

“That’s 27 families without a breadwinner. And a health clinic that’s short 27 employees to take care of people,” she said. “We want a strong border, we want a path to citizenship. We don’t want law-abiding people to be ejected from our country, impoverishing their family and driving our economy into ruin.”

Both major national political parties took an interest in the race, which was a runoff between the two top finishers in the Nov. 4 general election. Trump talked up Gonzalez on his social media site, and national Democratic figures weighed in for Higgins.

Turnout in Tuesday’s runoff was huge for a mayoral election in Miami. At a little more than 37,000 votes, it nearly matched turnout in the Nov. 4 general election, which was 36% higher than the turnout four years ago.

However, the number of votes was still much lower than in a typical midterm election, like the one that will be held in 2026. For example, 92,500 voters in the city of Miami cast ballots in the 2022 election for governor.

Higgins could join the growing local opposition to Trump’s presidential library, which Republicans have pushed to build in downtown Miami. Earlier this month, the Miami-Dade College board voted to donate a nearly 3-acre undeveloped lot, valued at over $67 million, located on the iconic Biscayne Boulevard. However, a judge had temporarily blocked the transfer while a lawsuit plays out.

At a debate aired last month on Miami television station CBS 4, Higgins said that while it is “an honor” to be home to a presidential library, she felt this was a “land giveaway.” She said the state could have sold the land and paid for things that have been cut such as food aid and money for transit.

“We gave away very valuable land to a billionaire for free,” she said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Earlier this year, Trump was accompanied by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who Higgins will succeed, at the White House in announcing Miami will host next year’s Group of 20 summit at his golf club in Doral, Florida, a suburb of greater Miami. He argued it was “the best location” for the international gathering.

Suarez said such gathering put the city “on the global map.”

Trump has been known for his public feuds with Democratic mayors and governors. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, had to confront a federal law enforcement intervention into her city launched by Trump. She announced last month that she would not seek reelection.

At the press conference, Higgins was asked if she was scared Trump could retaliate in any way against her.

“No tengo ningún miedo de él,” she said, Spanish for “I am not scared of him, at all.”

Associated Press journalist Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington contributed in this report.

From the 0-26 "Yuccaneers" to 2-time champions, Buccaneers celebrate 50 years with new docuseries

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers shed the “Yuccaneers” label decades ago.

They went from 0-26 to two-time Super Bowl champions and currently are four-time defending NFC South champs. They’re tied for first place entering a game against the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night when they’ll be wearing their original creamsicle uniforms.

Long before Tom Brady turned the city into Tompa Bay and led the franchise to its second NFL title, the team traded Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young, let eventual Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams walk away and was spurned by Bo Jackson and Bill Parcells twice.

Those moments are among many of the franchise-altering decisions that are detailed in “Raise The Flags,” a new 10-part series that chronicles 50 years of Buccaneers football. The docuseries, which debuts on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, gives viewers a thorough, behind-the-scenes look at the organization’s journey from expansion afterthought to championship contender.

It celebrates the good times and digs into some of the biggest lows, highlighting the triumphs and the missteps over five decades and two ownership groups.

“Raise The Flags” was commissioned and produced by Buccaneers co-owner Ed Glazer and directed by eight-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Trent Cooper, who is a lifelong Bucs fan.

“We tried to be as honest as we could,” Glazer told the AP. “A lot of people don’t always hear my family speak, so I think that’s going to be a first for a lot of people. But I think we try to take a real honest look at things that we’ve done well and mistakes that we’ve made as owners. You’re going to hear us talk about doing this for the first time ourselves going back 25 years ago. So we’re learning along the way, and there are mistakes that we made that things that we wouldn’t do again today, some bold moves we made that may not have worked out well that we may not make today.

“You get a little cautious as you get older. And there’s some bold moves we made that maybe we would regret making along the away also, right? I think one of them is letting some players go over the years that we would never let go today. Thinking that we could easily replace Hall of Fame players, and you can’t.”

The series features footage of Hugh Culverhouse, who paid $16 million for the expansion team. After his death, the family sold the team to Malcolm Glazer for a then-record $192 million in 1995.

One episode spotlights the first draft under the Glazers — before the sale of the team was even official — when general manager Rich McKay selected future Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks in the first two rounds.

Another episode is devoted to the hiring of Tony Dungy, a pivotal moment in 1996 that reshaped the franchise’s culture and future, and eventually the difficult decision to fire him after the 2001 season.

“Tony was probably the most significant person ever in Buccaneer history,” Ed Glazer said. “When he came in ’95, obviously the first 20 years were not very successful. And Tony just brought stability to the team and it really almost carries to today. His leadership, his mentorship, the importance of the community, I mean all the things that he brought in that were so important to him still carry with us today. The players may be gone, but we’re still there and I think we learned a lot for Tony also of the importance of giving back and really mentoring young players. I think his legacy still carries on very strongly in Tampa.”

After Dungy’s dismissal, the Bucs pursued Parcells for a second time. A decade earlier, Culverhouse scheduled a press conference to announce Parcells was being hired only to say he changed his mind.

The Glazers had a contract with Parcells but he didn’t sign it. They considered Nick Saban but he wanted too much money. They had everyone thinking they were hiring Steve Mariucci while they worked out a megadeal to acquire Jon Gruden from the Raiders for two first-round picks, two second-rounders and $8 million.

Gruden led the Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl title in his first season after replacing Dungy. They wouldn’t win another one until Brady arrived in 2020.

And, they’re still winning with Baker Mayfield, though they’re still seeking that third ring.

“This series is loaded with stories lifelong fans have never heard,” Cooper said. “The things Steve Young went through as our quarterback in the mid-80s made me laugh out loud. The Keyshawn (Johnson) vs. Gruden falling out made me a bit uncomfortable. Listening to both of them so unfiltered was fantastic. How the Bucs actually landed Tom Brady, just fascinating.”

Brady, Dungy, Gruden, Sapp, Brooks, McKay, Bruce Arians, Mike Alstott and Ronde Barber are among 100 current and former players, coaches, executives, staff, and media personalities interviewed for the docuseries.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl