Politics

Last-minute cancellation, reversal derails Miami Mayor candidates’ forum in Coconut Grove

Published

3 weeks ago

November 17, 2025

A planned Monday night forum featuring Miami mayoral candidates Emilio González and Eileen Higgins is no longer happening after González’s campaign waffled about whether he could participate.

González’s team informed event organizers on Sunday that he wouldn’t be able to take part in the forum due to a “personal issue.”

The campaign then changed tack Monday morning, saying González would be able to participate after all, but he’d have to arrive later than the original 7 p.m. start time.

By then, Higgins’ campaign had already scheduled something else.

Shortly after González’s campaign said he wouldn’t attend the forum — which was to be held at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church — organizers alerted the Higgins campaign to the change. They discussed instead hosting a single-candidate “town hall,” which would still be live-streamed to those unable to attend in person, among the roughly 100 people who had reserved seats.

Higgins ultimately turned down the offer.

González’s Communications Director, Andrew Trabazo, said that while González had previously confirmed he would participate, an unforeseen issue arose that initially prompted the campaign to pull out.

By Monday morning, he said, it appeared González would still be able to attend, albeit “maybe 30 minutes” late.

“In all likelihood, there’s a very strong chance we’re going to make it,” Trabazo told Florida Politics.

Event organizer Mel Meinhardt of One Grove Alliance said Trabazo was “deeply apologetic” for the confusion that led to the cancellation after learning that Higgins had moved on.

“Higgins’ campaign made a decision to attend based on a set of circumstances that no longer existed. The ground shifted underneath them,” Meinhardt said.

“González (said he) wasn’t going to show up, so Higgins’ campaign considered things overnight and came back to me early this morning and said, ‘No, it doesn’t make sense for us overall to attend.’ So, we mobilized to fully cancel the event and see what we can do in the future.”

Higgins’ campaign strongly criticized the situation, arguing that the timeline and cancellation reflected poorly on González’s leadership style.

“In what can be seen as a slap in the face to Coconut Grove residents and the community organizations who spent weeks organizing tonight’s forum, Mr. González’s eleventh-hour cancellation is yet another example of how this City Hall insider would govern as Mayor,” campaign manager Christian Ulvert said in a statement. “He’s taking a page from his new endorsers’ playbook by refusing to answer questions and ducking the debate.”

Late Sunday, President Donald Trump issued an effusive endorsement of González. Trump refused to debate former Vice President Kamala Harris after meeting her on stage once ahead of Election Day last year.

Florida Politics asked Ulvert what Higgins’ new Monday commitment is and will update this story upon receipt of an answer.

By the time Florida Politics contacted Meinhardt Monday morning, the event’s organizers, which also included the Coconut Grove Village Council and Coconut Grove Spotlight, were already disassembling the stage.

Online notices for the now-canceled forum saw limited engagement. One Instagram post by the Coconut Grove Democratic Club featuring AI-generated images of González and Higgins that bear only a passing resemblance to the candidates had eight likes and no comments after three days.

Two other posts on Facebook by the Grove Watch Group and the Women’s Club of Coconut Grove received comparable interaction.

González and Higgins appeared together onstage last Thursday at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade at Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center. The event received coverage from several local outlets.

The two are competing in a Dec. 9 runoff after neither secured a majority of the vote earlier this month.

Higgins took 36% of the vote in the city’s Nov. 4 General Election, while González received 19.5%, outpacing 11 other contenders.

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Politics

Early voting underway for Miami Mayor’s runoff between Eileen Higgins, Emilio González

Published

11 minutes ago

December 6, 2025

May Greene

Early voting is underway in Miami as former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former City Manager Emilio González enter the final stretch of a closely watched Dec. 9 mayoral runoff.

The two candidates rose from a 13-person field Nov. 4, with Higgins winning about 36% of the vote and González taking 19.5%. Because neither surpassed 50%, Miami voters must now choose between contrasting visions for a city grappling with affordability, rising seas, political dysfunction and rapid growth.

Both promise to bring more stability and accountability to City Hall. Both say Miami’s permitting process needs fixing.

Higgins, a mechanical engineer and eight-year county commissioner with a broad, international background in government service, has emphasized affordable housing — urging the city to build on public land and create a dedicated housing trust fund — and supports expanding the City Commission from five to nine members to improve neighborhood representation.

She also backs more eco-friendly and flood-preventative infrastructure, faster park construction and better transportation connectivity and efficiency.

She opposes Miami’s 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling recent enforcement “inhumane and cruel,” and has pledged to serve as a full-time mayor with no outside employment while replacing City Manager Art Noriega.

González, a retired Air Force colonel, former Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and ex-CEO of Miami International Airport, argues Miami needs an experienced administrator to fix what he calls deep structural problems.

He has made permitting reform a top priority, labeling the current system as barely functioning, and says affordability must be addressed through broader tax relief rather than relying on housing development alone.

He supports limited police cooperation with ICE and wants Miami to prepare for the potential repeal of homestead property taxes. Like Higgins, he vows to replace Noriega but opposes expanding the commission.

He also vows, if elected, to establish a “Deregulation Task Force” to unburden small businesses, prioritizing capital investments that protect Miamians, increasing the city’s police force, modernizing Miami services with technology and a customer-friendly approach, and rein in government spending and growth.

Notably, Miami’s Nov. 4 election this year might not have taken place if not for González, who successfully sued in July to stop officials from delaying its election until 2026.

The runoff has drawn national attention, with major Democrats like Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, Arizona U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego and Orange County Mayor-turned-gubernatorial candidate Jerry Demings and his wife, former Congresswoman Val Demings, backing Higgins and high-profile Republicans like President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott lining up behind González.

For both parties, Miami’s outcome is seen as a bellwether heading into a volatile 2026 cycle, in a city where growth, climate challenges and governance failures remain top concerns for nearly 500,000 residents.

Higgins, a 61-year-old Democrat who was born in Ohio and grew up in New Mexico, entered the race as the longest-serving current member of the Miami-Dade Commission. She won her seat in a 2018 Special Election and coasted back into re-election unopposed last year.

She chose to vacate her seat three years early to run for Mayor.

She worked for years in the private sector, overseeing global manufacturing in Europe and Latin America, before returning stateside to lead marketing for companies such as Pfizer and Jose Cuervo.

In 2006, she took a Director job with the Peace Corps in Belize, after which she served as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department under President Barack Obama, working in Mexico and in economic development areas in South Africa.

Since filing in April, Higgins raised $386,500 through her campaign account. She also amassed close to $658,000 by the end of September through her county-level political committee, Ethical Leadership for Miami. Close to a third of that sum — $175,000 — came through a transfer from her state-level PC.

She also spent about $881,000.

If elected, Higgins would make history as Miami’s first woman Mayor.

González, a 68-year-old born in Cuba, brought the most robust government background to the race. A U.S. Army veteran who rose to the rank of colonel, he served as Miami City Manager from 2017 to 2020, CEO of Miami International Airport (MIA) from 2013 to 2017 and as Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.

In private life, he works as a partner at investment management firm RSMD Investco LLC. He also serves as a member of the Treasury Investment Council under the Florida Department of Financial Services.

Since filing to run for Mayor in April, he raised nearly $1.2 million and spent about $1 million.

Election Day is Tuesday.

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Politics

Paul Renner doubles down on Cory Mills critique, urges more Republicans to join him

Published

1 hour ago

December 6, 2025

May Greene

Mills was a day-one Byron Donalds backer in the gubernatorial race.

A former House Speaker and current candidate for Governor is leading the charge for Republicans as scandal swirls around a Congressman.

Saying the “evidence is mounting” against Rep. Cory Mills, Paul Renner says other candidates for Governor should “stand up and be counted” and join him in the call for Mills to leave Congress.

Renner made the call earlier this week.

But on Friday, the Palm Coast Republican doubled down.

He spotlighted fresh reporting from Roger Sollenberger alleging that Mills’ company “appears to have illegally exported weapons while he serves in Congress, including to Ukraine,” that Mills failed to disclose conflicts of interest, “tried to fistfight other Republican members of Congress, and lied about his party stature to bully other GOP candidates out of primaries that an alleged romantic interest was running in,” and lied about his conversion to Islam.

The House Ethics Committee is already probing Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, over allegations of profiting from federal defense contracts while in Congress. More recently, the Committee expanded its work to review allegations that he assaulted one ex-girlfriend and threatened to share intimate photos of another.

Other candidates have been more reticent in addressing the issue, including Rep. Byron Donalds.

“When any other members have been involved and stuff like this, my advice is the same,” said Donalds, a Naples Republican. “They need to actually spend a lot more time in the district and take stock of what’s going on at home, and make that decision with their voters.”

The response came less than a year after Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, spoke at the launch of Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign.

___

Staff writer Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.

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Politics

Eileen Higgins brings out starpower as special election campaign nears close

Published

2 hours ago

December 6, 2025

May Greene

Prominent Democrats will be on hand at a number of stops.

Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is enlisting more big names as support at early vote stops ahead of Tuesday’s special election for Mayor, including a Senate candidate, a former Senate candidate, and a current candidate for Governor.

During her canvass kickoff at 10 a.m at Elizabeth Virrick Park, Higgins will appear with U.S. Senate Candidate Hector Mujica.

Early vote stops follow, with Higgins solo at the 11 a.m. show-up at Miami City Hall and the 11:30 at the Shenandoah Library.

From there, big names from Orlando will be with the candidate.

Orange County Mayor and candidate for Florida Governor Jerry Demings and former Congresswoman Val Demings will appear with Higgins at the Liberty Square Family & Friends Picnic (2 p.m.), Charles Hadley Park (3 p.m.), and the Carrie P. Meek Senior and Cultural Center (3:30 p.m.)

Higgins, who served on the County Commission from 2018 to 2025, is competing in a runoff for the city’s mayoralty against former City Manager Emilio González. The pair topped 11 other candidates in Miami’s Nov. 4 General Election, with Higgins, a Democrat, taking 36% of the vote and González, a Republican, capturing 19.5%.

To win outright, a candidate had to receive more than half the vote. Miami’s elections are technically nonpartisan, though party politics frequently still play into races.

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