Eileen Higgins enters Miami Mayor’s race, vows to ensure city ‘works for everyone’

Image via Eileen Higgins.

Eileen Higgins, the Miami-Dade County Commission’s senior member, wants to lead the city she has represented at County Hall since 2018.

She just filed to run for Miami Mayor, pledging to continue working to expand affordable housing and public transit, support local businesses and create green spaces at the municipal level.

“I love this city, and I’m running for Mayor to get things done — because I believe in the power of public service to improve people’s lives,” she said.

“Our residents want a city where they can build a future, raise a family and count on local government to get the job done — that’s the leadership I bring (and as) Mayor, I’ll continue doing what I’ve always done: listening to our community, solving problems, and making sure Miami works for everyone who calls our city home.”

Higgins filed paperwork to run Tuesday, less than a year after she won re-election to the 13-member County Commission without opposition.

That won’t be the case in the Miami Mayor’s race, where she’ll face at least five others, including former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and multiple candidates who ran for elected city posts in 2021.

Higgins and Russell were briefly opponents in 2022, when both filed to run in a Democratic Primary for the right to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar. Higgins quickly dropped out of the race, while Russell came up short in the Primary against former state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who went on to lose to Salazar.

Higgins boasts a broad and varied professional background. She got her start as an engineer after graduating in 1987 from the University of New Mexico. Two years later, she earned an MBA in operations and production management from Cornell University.

At first, she worked in manufacturing facilities, with some jobs taking her to Europe and Latin America. She then moved into general business management, marketing and sales for spirits companies Seagram and Jose Cuervo.

That work got her invited to serve on advisory boards for nonprofit organizations, which led to her involvement in anti-poverty initiatives. She became director of the Peace Corps in Belize, working on everything from basic sanitation and dealing with HIV and AIDS to economic development.

She described the experience as “transformational” in a 2019 interview with Miami Today.

From there, she went to work for the U.S. Department of State, where she worked to improve relations between America, Mexico and South Africa.

She briefly worked as a business consultant in Miami before winning a seat on the Miami-Dade Commission.

Higgins has proven a capable fundraiser. Last year, she stacked more than $570,000 between her campaign account and political committee, Rebranding Politics, to defend her seat. State records show she had about $480,000 left in her PC on New Year’s Eve.

The Miami Mayor’s job is a “weak Mayor” post, meaning the office carries little administrative muscle other than the ability to hire and fire the City Manager and veto legislation, such as a lifetime pension plan current Mayor Francis Suarez nixed in October.

Higgins’ team said that as Mayor, she will “build on her proven record to expand access to affordable housing, strengthen the trolley system, and bring modern, on-demand transit options to better connect communities.” Other priorities include “smarter” flood prevention and environmental safeguards, supporting law enforcement and enhancing public spaces and neighborhood infrastructure “to make every community safer and more livable.”