Democrats are seeking to win the Miami mayoral race Tuesday for the first time since 1997, after the political party's big wins last month including the New York City mayoral race. 

Former Miami city manager Emilio Gonzalez, the conservative in the race, is running against Democrat Eileen Higgins, who was a Miami Dade County commissioner before making it to the runoff last month, The Associated Press reported. They are seeking to succeed Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is term-limited. Suarez's father was the last Democratic mayor of Miami.

Miami, with a population of 487,000, is Florida’s second most populous city and part of Miami-Dade, which President Trump flipped last year to win reelection, after losing to his Democratic opponents there in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Democrat candidates last month also won a New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial seat.

Higgins calls herself “La Gringa,” a term Spanish speakers use for white Americans. If elected, she would be the first non-Hispanic mayor of Miami in almost 30 years.

“I have been a Democrat serving in a primarily Republican district, and all I have done is work for the people,” Higgins told the AP.

She has promised to find city-owned land that could be turned into affordable housing and cut unnecessary spending.

Gonzalez, a former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director under President George W. Bush, said during a debate that he supported immigration arrests against those who committed crimes.

When the moderator said most of those arrested had not committed violent offenses, Gonzalez said, “But this is a federal issue. This is not an issue that has to do with the mayor of Miami.”

Regarding Miami joining a federal program that delegates immigration authority to local police, county sheriffs, and state agencies, Higgins said she would find legal options to undo that decision to rebuild trust between residents and law enforcement.

“When we start to enforce whatever shenanigans is coming out of the federal government to just randomly pick people up, we could erode that trust,” she said.