In 2025, Eileen Higgins was elected the first female mayor of Miami and the first Democrat to lead the city in nearly thirty years. She beat a Trump-endorsed candidate by close to twenty points—in neighborhoods where many residents were skeptical of Democrats.

Higgins left a corporate career to run the Peace Corps in Belize, served as a diplomat, then won a county commission seat representing Little Havana. Now she's mayor of one of America's most immigrant-shaped cities.

Sarah McCammon sat down with Mayor Higgins in Miami to talk about building affordable housing, what it actually takes to win Latino voters, and why she's not afraid of the word "capitalist."

00:00 — Cold open

00:02:24 — Engineer in a blue jumpsuit

00:04:00 — Writing her own obituary

00:04:57 — Peace Corps to politics

00:08:29 — 100 days as mayor

00:15:05 — Winning Little Havana

00:21:19 — Leading through deportations

00:28:07 — Affordable housing in an unaffordable city

00:42:40 — "We can be Democrats differently"

00:45:16 — The Latino vote isn't monolithic

00:46:33 — Knocking on doors

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