Two prominent Miami Democrats ready run against Republican Salazar for House seat

A Miami-Dade County commissioner is ready to give up her seat early to run in the Democratic primary to challenge first-term Republican Maria Elvira Salazar in District 27, and a Miami city commissioner is dropping his U.S. Senate bid to join the primary fight, too.

Eileen Higgins, in the second year of her first full four-year term on the county commission, plans to announce her Congressional campaign soon, said Christian Ulvert, her longtime campaign manager. Florida’s resign-to-run law requires her to sign resignation papers by early June that would be effective at the start of 2023, when members of Congress get sworn into office.

READ MORE: How a congressional race may cost Levine Cava a top ally on Miami-Dade commission

Miami Commissioner Ken Russell this weekend also announced his own run in the Democratic primary for the District 27, saying he’s ending his uphill campaign to challenge against fellow Democrat Val Demings to challenge Marco Rubio for a Florida Senate seat. He was already planning to resign his city seat, where term limit rules bar him from running again in 2023.

The back-to-back announcements pit two of the most liberal elected officials in Miami politics against each other for last-minute runs to challenge a Republican in a district that’s still attractive to Democrats. Redrawn lines approved by the Florida legislature make it roughly split between Joe Biden and Donald Trump voters from 2020. The district includes parts of Miami, Coral Gables and suburban areas near Biscayne Bay and U.S. 1 south of Miami.

Salazar, a former television journalist, defeated first-time Democrat Donna Shalala in 2020, an upset that highlighted the brutal year Democrats endured in South Florida, with Carlos Gimenez, then Miami-Dade’s outgoing mayor, ousting Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in the neighboring District 26 as well.

On Monday, Salazar’s campaign released a statement that said: “While two career politicians try to seek yet another office, I’ll continue fighting for people in our community. My focus remains on reducing taxes and the cost of living, growing jobs, and funding our police. These politicians will be defending the policies of liberals in DC that have destroyed our economy, led to rampant inflation, and increased crime in our community.”

With Biden’s poor showing in local and national polls, Democrats face a tough recruiting year, too. Gimenez has no well-funded challenges, and Salazar also had no prominent would-be Democrat challenger ahead of the June 13 qualifying deadline.

Russell said he reached out to the Democratic congressional committee last week about switching to the District 27 race, and he said the party was not aware of a viable candidate.

He said he has not spoken to Higgins about her interest in the seat, and the two chatted at Friday’s charity gala held by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. He announced his switch to the District 27 race on a video he posted on Tik Tok Saturday.

“Guys, this is a really really rough morning for me,” he said. “I’m dropping out of the race against Marco Rubio to support Val Demings... We need unity. We need to be organized as Democrats, and we just never are.”

He said on the video he was switching to the District 27 race. In an interview Sunday, he said he hoped the unity message would translate to the congressional race. “My hope is we don’t have a contested primary,” he said.

Higgins did not respond to a request for comment this weekend on a potential congressional run, but Ulvert statement said his client “is ready to take her fight to Washington, D.C. She will be making a formal announcement imminently.”

Though Florida law would require a Higgins resignation effective when a Congressional term begins, she could also decide to leave her District 5 county seat earlier.

That’s what her predecessor, Republican Bruno Barreiro did in 2018 when he launched a failed bid for the District 27 seat eventually won that year by Shalala, the former University of Miami president.

Barreiro’s resignation created a vacancy the commission opted to fill with a special election, which Higgins, a first-time candidate, won in an upset. She then won her first full term in 2020, meaning she could run for a second commission term in 2024 before Miami-Dade’s term-limit law would require her to leave the seat in 2028.

This story was originally published May 1, 2022 at 11:11 AM.