Politics

South Florida AFL-CIO backs Eileen Higgins for Mayor

Published

4 weeks ago

November 10, 2025

Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is heading into the runoff race for Miami Mayor with a new endorsement from the South Florida AFL-CIO.

The organization, which represents thousands of Miami workers and more than 250,000 people across Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, cited Higgins’ support of labor interests as key to earning its backing.

“Through her record of service, Commissioner Eileen Higgins has proven time and again that she’s a true champion for Miami’s workers and families,” South Florida AFL-CIO President Jeffery Mitchell said in a statement.

“From her years as County Commissioner to her campaign for Mayor, Eileen has consistently championed fair pay, safe working conditions, and respect for every worker. We know she will continue fighting to make Miami a city that works for everyone. We look forward to mobilizing our members in the coming weeks to secure her spot as the next Mayor of Miami and ensure that workers have a leader who shows up, listens, and gets results.”

As a County Commissioner, Higgins spearheaded efforts like the MetroCenter project to expand affordable housing on underutilized county land while preserving historic buildings and workforce housing.

She also worked to successfully secure hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funds for local transit and infrastructure improvements and backed legislation to expand Miami-Dade’s living wage requirements, improve workplace safety at Miami International Airport and provide paid sick leave to workers.

The AFL-CIO also backed her re-election campaign last year. Its endorsement of her in the Miami Mayor’s race joins others from union groups including 1199SEIU, UNITE HERE Local 355, SAVE Action PAC, LiUNA Local 1652 and SEIU 32BJ.

Advocacy groups including Equality Florida Action PAC, EMILY’s List and Ruth’s List Florida are also supporting her, as are Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami Gardens Sen. Shevrin Jones, Miami Rep. Ashley Gantt and South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández.

“I am deeply honored to once again receive the endorsement of the hardworking men and women of the South Florida AFL-CIO,” Higgins said in a statement.

“Working people are the backbone of our city — the teachers, bus drivers, sanitation workers, construction crews, and healthcare workers who make Miami run every single day. As Mayor, I will fight to make sure they have fair wages, safe workplaces, and a city government that treats them with the respect they deserve. Together, we will build a stronger, more affordable Miami that works for everyone.”

Higgins, who resigned from the County Commission on Nov. 5 in accordance with Florida’s resign-to-run law, is competing in a Dec. 9 runoff for Miami Mayor against former City Manager Emilio González after neither secured more than half the votes in the city’s Nov. 4 election. They topped 11 other candidates, with Higgins taking 36% and González capturing 19.5% of the vote, respectively.

Internal polling shows Higgins with a high likelihood of winning the runoff.

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Politics

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

Published

53 minutes 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.

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Staff writer Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.

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Politics

Eileen Higgins brings out starpower as special election campaign nears close

Published

1 hour 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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Politics

Hope Florida fallout drives another Rick Scott rebuke of Ron DeSantis

Published

2 hours ago

December 6, 2025

May Greene

The cold war between Florida’s Governor and his predecessor is nearly seven years old and tensions show no signs of thawing.

On Friday, Sen. Rick Scott weighed in on Florida Politics’ reporting on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s apparent repayment of $10 million of Medicaid money from a settlement last year, which allegedly had been diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation, summarily filtered through non-profits through political committees, and spent on political purposes.

“I appreciate the efforts by the Florida legislature to hold Hope Florida accountable. Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads. If any money was misspent, then it should be paid back by the entities responsible, not the taxpayers,” Scott posted to X.

While AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus says that is an “incorrect” interpretation, she did not respond to a follow-up question asking for further detail this week.

The $10 million under scrutiny was part of a $67 million settlement from state Medicaid contractor Centene, which DeSantis said was “a cherry on top” in the settlement, arguing it wasn’t truly from Medicaid money.

But in terms of the Scott-DeSantis contretemps, it’s the latest example of tensions that seemed to start even before DeSantis was sworn in when Scott left the inauguration of his successor, and which continue in the race to succeed DeSantis, with Scott enthusiastic about current front runner Byron Donalds.

Earlier this year, Scott criticized DeSantis’ call to repeal so-called vaccine mandates for school kids, saying parents could already opt out according to state law.

While running for re-election to the Senate in 2024, Scott critiqued the Heartbeat Protection Act, a law signed by DeSantis that banned abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy with some exceptions, saying the 15 week ban was “where the state’s at.”

In 2023 after Scott endorsed Donald Trump for President while DeSantis was still a candidate, DeSantis said it was an attempt to “short circuit” the voters.

That same year amid DeSantis’ conflict over parental rights legislation with The Walt Disney Co., Scott said it was important for Governors to “work with” major companies in their states.

The critiques went both ways.

When running for office, DeSantis distanced himself from Scott amid controversy about the Senator’s blind trust for his assets as Governor.

“I basically made decisions to serve in uniform, as a prosecutor, and in Congress to my financial detriment,” DeSantis said in October 2018. “I’m not entering (office) with a big trust fund or anything like that, so I’m not going to be entering office with those issues.”

In 2020, when the state’s creaky unemployment website couldn’t handle the surge of applicants for reemployment assistance as the pandemic shut down businesses, DeSantis likened it to a “jalopy in the Daytona 500” and Scott urged him to “quit blaming others” for the website his administration inherited.

The chill between the former and current Governors didn’t abate in time for 2022’s hurricane season, when Scott said DeSantis didn’t talk to him after the fearsome Hurricane Ian ravaged the state.

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