Emilio Gonzalez loses to Eileen Higgins in hyper partisan Miami mayoral race

Some will say that Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins won the hyper partisan Miami mayoral race that ended Tuesday. But others might say that former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez lost it.
The official tally was 59% to 41% — an 18-point lead that Democrats statewide and nationwide celebrated as a bellwether to Miami’s officially partisan 2026 races (more on that later). And, yeah, Higgins got a lot of support on the ground from the Democratic National Committee and a PR boost from big, national, blue stars like Pete Buttigieg, and Congressman Rahm Emanuel and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
Make no mistake, though: Gonzalez definitely underperformed. Certainly because Republican voters underperformed. And maybe also because the Republican Party, at the national level, underperformed. There were no national phone banks. No big RNC money.
If Gonzalez thought the cavalry was coming, he misjudged.
The writing was on the wall as early as the first round Nov. 4, when Higgins came in first in a field of 13, but with 17 points over Gonzalez in the number two spot. And since absentee voting began weeks ago by mail, Democrats kept a turnout advantage. Republican voters did better in early voting, but only by a little bit. And Higgins still won that category.
Democrats ended with a 3,000-vote lead. And if we add NPAs, who tend to vote more blue than red, they doubled the number of GOP voters.
But it didn’t have to go this way. And some could argue that this was Emilio’s race to lose.
The former director of Miami International Airport got a gift last summer when the city commission moved the election to 2026, basically cancelling the mayor’s race and two commission race and giving everybody an extra year in office. You get a year. And you get a year. And you get a year.
Gonzalez was the only mayoral candidate who sued the city to stop them from doing that, arguing that the commission could not make that change without taking it to voters first. A judge agreed. The city appealed. Gonzalez won again. The city asked for a rehearing. The judges said GTFOH.
The amount of earned media he got from that process — the saving of the people’s voice — was any political consultant’s dream. Gonzalez was seen as a hero. He built a lot of good will on that.
Read related: Third DCA says no, again; Miami loses third try to cancel November elections
He could have run a race on an anti-corruption, pro-democracy, clean-up-City-Hall platform and won. But he threw it all away when he turned to embrace MAGA instead.
Ladra likes Gonzalez. He’s smart and scrappy. He is not the typical Miami Trumpista. But, early on, he took on the mantle of the GOP candidate with the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Ted Freaking Cruz from Texas and then the president himself. Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account twice urging voters to pick Gonzalez.
And maybe he had to motivate his base.
But maybe he also went too far. A Saturday caravan through the streets of Little Havana with Alex Otaola too far.
Reached Tuesday evening at his watch party, Gonzalez — who got into the runoff on Nov. 4 over several political veterans — was still yapping it up with friends and supporters. And it seemed he wouldn’t really do anything differently.
Read related: Miami’s mayoral race has gone full partisan – just like Ladra warned
“We started from zero. We self-funded, had no party money, and this was kind of an insurgent movement,” the retired Army colonel told Political Cortadito. “If I had been established, it would have been different.”
Maybe. But it might also have been different if he had danced to a non-partisan beat.
On X, Gonzalez thanked “the thousands of Miami residents who stood with us for integrity, safety, and putting families first,” and hinted that he might stick around. Maybe he’ll run for Higgins’ county seat in August. Maybe he’ll run in the yet-to-be-announced special election in HD 113.
“While this election didn’t end the way we hoped, our fight for accountability, transparency, and a city that works for residents not insiders continues,” he wrote.
That doesn’t sound like goodbye.
You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
The post Emilio Gonzalez loses to Eileen Higgins in hyper partisan Miami mayoral race appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story