MIAMI — Miami found itself in the national spotlight this week after Eileen Higgins defeated Trump-backed opponent Emilio González in the runoff for Miami mayor, making her the city’s first woman mayor and also the first Democrat elected to the position in decades.

But Miami voters also sent a resounding message on the local level this election cycle, rejecting multiple legacy politicians who’ve spent decades in South Florida’s political scene. On top of that, voters last month overwhelmingly passed a ballot referendum limiting the city’s elected officials to two terms as mayor and two terms as commissioner for their lifetime.

The final nail in the coffin for Miami’s political dynasties in the city’s 2025 election cycle occurred Tuesday night, when Rolando Escalona, a little-known candidate with no political experience, defeated former two-time Commissioner Frank Carollo in the race for Miami’s open District 3 seat. Carollo led in the November general election with almost 38% of the vote — 20 points ahead of Escalona. But the political newcomer managed to close that gap in the weeks leading up to the runoff, ultimately defeating Carollo with 53% of the vote.

“The atmospheric conditions all said that a Category 5 political storm was coming to the city of Miami, and I think the Escalona win just proved that it might have even been stronger than we anticipated,” Miami Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi said Wednesday.

Escalona broke the Carollo family’s 16-year streak occupying the District 3 seat. After Frank Carollo held the position from 2009 to 2017, his older brother Joe Carollo won the seat in 2017 and again in 2021. Joe Carollo is termed out this month and will attend his last City Commission meeting on Thursday.

“This is a new era in Miami. The old guard is gone,” Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela, who was elected in 2023 on a reform platform, said at Escalona’s watch party on Tuesday night.

Frank Carollo wasn’t the only establishment candidate voters rejected. His Tuesday loss follows Joe Carollo’s fourth-place finish in the mayoral race last month. Former state senator and Miami City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla came in fifth. Xavier Suarez, the city’s first Cuban-born mayor and also the father of outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez, came in sixth.

And earlier this year, Jose Regalado, a political newcomer but the son of former Miami mayor and current Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado, lost in a June special election for the city’s District 4 seat.

Up until now, there has only been one year since 1979 — when Joe Carollo was first elected — without a Suarez, Carollo or Regalado in Miami City Hall, according to a Miami Herald analysis. That streak has now been broken again.

Miami City Hall has been plagued with controversy in recent years, from screaming matches on the dais during commission meetings to city leaders facing investigations, criminal charges and multimillion-dollar lawsuits.

“I think the dysfunction compounded by dysfunction just got to be too much, and voters said no mas,” Amandi said. “They wanted a new approach. They wanted new names, new faces, a reinvigoration and new blood. And that’s what the city now has for the first time in half a century.”

Following Escalona’s victory, the Miami City Commission now consists mostly of first-timers. District 4 Commissioner Ralph Rosado, an urban planner and former North Bay Village manager with no elected experience, won in the June special election. Meanwhile, Gabela and Commissioner Damian Pardo are midway through their first terms after defeating incumbents in 2023. That makes Commissioner Christine King, who was elected to a second term last month, the most tenured on the commission.

Former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell had a similar experience to Escalona when he was first elected in 2015. At the time, Russell was labeled a “dark horse” candidate when he ran against Teresa Sarnoff, the wife of incumbent Marc Sarnoff, in the race for the District 2 seat. The two made it to a runoff, but Sarnoff conceded before the runoff election took place.

“Surprised is not the right word,” Russell said Wednesday when asked about his reaction to Frank Carollo’s loss. “The established money was betting on [Carollo], but there was such a move for change right now. I think that that district was not immune to that yearning. They really want to see something different.”

Russell placed third in the mayoral race last month behind González, a former Miami city manager and director of Miami International Airport, and Higgins, who served on the Miami-Dade County Commission from 2018 until she resigned her seat to officially qualify for the mayor’s race. Even though they aren’t total political newcomers, Amandi said González and Higgins advancing to the runoff indicates Miami voters are looking for something different.

“It’s not that they come [from] completely outside of the political establishment world,” he said. “But they certainly are outsiders to the dynastic politics that have defined the city of Miami over the last five decades.”

Miami voters this election cycle also approved a referendum creating lifetime term limits for elected officials in the city, limiting them to two terms as mayor and two terms as commissioner for their lifetime. The proposal, sponsored by Pardo, passed 79% to 21% last month.

Reacting to Higgins’ and Escalona’s wins, Pardo said Tuesday night that: “I just think it’s a brand-new day for the city of Miami.”

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—Miami Herald staff writer Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.

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