Miami Herald backs Higgins, weighs in on Miami-Dade commission races
The Herald backed Eileen Higgins in District 2 and made a District 5 call as Miami-Dade voters headed into a primary that shapes county housing, transit and public safety.
Miami Herald editors backed Eileen Higgins in Miami-Dade Commission District 2 and made a District 5 endorsement as the county moved toward its Aug. 20, 2024 primary. Florida voters could cast ballots by vote-by-mail, during early voting or at the polls.
The endorsements matter because Miami-Dade’s Board of County Commissioners has 13 seats, and each commissioner is elected from a single-member district. County rules require candidates to be qualified electors of Miami-Dade County, county residents for at least three years and district residents for at least six months before qualifying.
In District 2, the Herald said Higgins has “some policy wins and should be given a chance to flourish as a commissioner.” That race sits against the backdrop of Marleine Bastien’s 2022 win, when she became the first Haitian American woman to win a seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission. Bastien’s official county profile identifies her District 2 office and legislation page.
District 5 has carried its own instability since longtime Commissioner Bruno Barreiro resigned to run for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, prompting a special election for the seat. Later, a tight vote over how to fill the vacancy underscored how much the fight over one district seat can shape county representation and the balance of power on the commission.
For Miami-Dade, those contests are not abstract. The county is Florida’s most populous, with more than 2.7 million residents, and commission votes reach into housing, transportation, land use, public safety and other services that residents feel in places from Miami to North Miami. The Herald’s election recommendations page says it publishes endorsements for local and state races and ballot items, placing these county commission decisions squarely within a broader primary-election guide that voters were asked to judge on the merits.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
