A Big Win in Miami Shows Democrats May Ride a Midterm Wave |
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A Democratic woman wins a major post in a place that had been trending toward the GOP by campaigning on affordability. It happened in New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial contests in November. It came closer than expected to happening in a deep-red Tennessee congressional district’s special election on last week. And on Tuesday, it happened again in Republican-controlled Florida, with a Democrat easily becoming mayor of Miami after 28 years of Republicans in that position.
In a runoff election, former county commissioner Eileen Higgins won nearly 60 percent against Republican former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, becoming the first Democrat to serve as mayor since 1997 and the first woman ever. It was technically a nonpartisan election, but partisan backing for the two candidates left no one in doubt as to the “teams” involved. (The loser’s endorsees included Donald Trump and