Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis endorses Emilio González for Miami mayor

Tess Riski, Miami Herald on Sep 23, 2025

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MIAMI — Florida’s top official is throwing his weight behind a candidate for Miami mayor.

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his endorsement of candidate Emilio González, a former city manager and retired U.S. Army colonel.

“With 26 years of military service and experience at both federal and local levels, Emilio has shown his commitment to our nation and Miami,” DeSantis said in a press release shared by González’s campaign.

Having the DeSantis seal of approval could be a major boon for González as he faces off against a dozen opponents, including some with greater name recognition and who currently hold elected office, like City Commissioner Joe Carollo and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins.

But there’s also a question of the degree to which the governor’s endorsement might help or hurt at a time of heightened political polarization. While the position of Miami mayor is officially nonpartisan, party affiliation could become a major sticking point in November, with some political insiders speculating that González’s stiffest competition is Higgins, a Democrat.

Whether Miami voters will prefer a Republican or Democrat in office remains to be seen. While Miami-Dade County flipped red for the first time in 36 years during the 2024 presidential election, the city of Miami remained blue — albeit by a narrow margin of 50% for Kamala Harris to 49% for Donald Trump.

DeSantis in recent months has championed a statewide crackdown on immigration — an issue that’s politically fraught in Miami, where about 58% of residents are foreign born and over 70% are Hispanic or Latino. The City Commission voted 3-2 in the summer to enter an immigration enforcement agreement with ICE but did so after hours of public comment in which scores of community members pleaded with the commission to vote against the measure.

DeSantis’s endorsement all but guarantees that a González win would improve the relationship between Miami and Tallahassee — at least while DeSantis is in office, through 2026. The governor and the current mayor, Francis Suarez, have a strained relationship that was further eroded this summer as the mayor championed the city’s effort to postpone the election to 2026, giving the city’s current elected officials an extra year in office. DeSantis, as well as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, publicly opposed the city’s decision to postpone the election.

DeSantis on Tuesday pointed to González’s successful lawsuit against the city. In July, an appeals court found the city’s election date change to be unconstitutional, effectively reverting the election to this year.

According to Tuesday’s press release, DeSantis said: “When local officials tried to cancel the election and extend their own terms, a clear violation of term limits, Emilio stepped up and stopped them in court.”