Meiner defeats Rosen Gonzalez to win second term as Miami Beach mayor

Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner won reelection Tuesday, defeating Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez to earn a second two-year term.

Meiner earned 51.2% of the vote, winning by 357 votes as Rosen Gonzalez finished at 48.8%.

“I think our residents saw that I am focused on the issues,” Meiner said in a victory speech at a supporter’s home in Mid Beach. “My sole goal, my sole mission — our sole mission, my family, our team — is to make Miami Beach the best and safest city in America, and we’re getting there, and we’ve got to keep the momentum going.”

At an event with her supporters at the Cardozo Hotel in South Beach, Rosen Gonzalez conceded defeat shortly before 7:30 p.m.

“We did the best we could,” Rosen Gonzalez said. “I’m proud of the campaign that we ran.”

Meiner, 54, touted his law-and-order track record and his success in quelling spring break chaos during his first term as mayor. He also highlighted statistics that showed decreases in major crimes.

“You have the opportunity to re-elect a Mayor who has delivered real results in just two years — more than many thought possible,” Meiner wrote in an email to voters Tuesday morning.

Meiner was a city commissioner before becoming mayor in 2023. He is eligible to serve up to three consecutive two-year terms in the mayor’s seat.

Rosen Gonzalez was first elected to the Miami Beach City Commission in 2015 and again in 2021. In between, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2018 and was narrowly defeated by Meiner in a 2019 runoff for City Commission.

She was term-limited as a commissioner this year.

Meiner and Rosen Gonzalez emphasized similar priorities on the campaign trail. Both said the city needs to do more to alleviate traffic and prevent overdevelopment. Both supported a crackdown on outdoor sleeping that has led to hundreds of arrests of the homeless. Both are supporters of Israel.

While the race was officially nonpartisan, supporters of Rosen Gonzalez, a registered Democrat, sought to paint Meiner as a conservative in liberal-leaning Miami Beach.

Democratic Party mailers spotlighted Meiner’s controversial attempt to evict O Cinema for screening a documentary about the West Bank, a move that made international headlines, as well as his lack of public opposition to the state’s recent removal of a rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive.

They also resurfaced a Miami Herald report published shortly before Meiner was elected as mayor in 2023, in which three of his former colleagues at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of making unwanted sexual advances, allegations he denied.

This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 7:37 PM.