The City of Miami is a mess. Locals voice frustration about chronic flooding in neighborhoods. Affordable housing is out of reach for tens of thousands. Gentrification has overtaken historically working-class areas like weeds in a summer garden. And a recent string of controversies at city hall has only deepened public distrust in government.
But there may be hope.
For the first time in nearly a decade, Mayor Francis Suarez will give up the reins at Pan American Drive and someone else, maybe a less contentious character, will take them after an election scheduled for November 4. In recent years, he’s been investigated by the FBI, accused of conflict of interest and improperly pushing for a no-bid contract that would benefit a legal client.
For many, the stakes couldn’t be higher. With a dysfunctional city hall, residents are looking for a stable force.
“The legislative body of the City of Miami is an absolute mess that’s broken down,” said David Villano, co-founder and co-editor of the “Coconut Grove Spotlight,” a nonprofit news website. “Someone needs to take the lead, and the mayor can do that. What they need is a school master who can keep this unruly body in line.”
Seven candidates have filed to take his place. One of them will likely move into City Hall after election day.
Eileen Higgins has represented parts of Miami on the county commission since 2018. Ken Russell, who represented District 2 on the city commission, has been out of office since 2022. Christian E Cevallos is a former Miami-Dade community council member.
There are also four candidates who have never held any elected office. June Savage is a real estate developer. Michael A. Hepburn and Ijamyn Joseph Grey are both longtime community activists. Emilio T. Gonzalez has never held elected office, but he has held several appointed high-level government positions, including Miami city manager.
Others could still be chosen. Below are the profiles for the seven candidates who have registered to run so far.
Ken Russell
After two years away from public office, former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell, 51, is back and aiming high.
“I wasn’t looking to become the mayor of Miami. Who would want to be the captain of the Titanic, right?” said Russell. “You see things going south. You see bad behavior. You see wasteful spending. I realized if I’m going to make a difference, I need to be involved and really jump in with both feet.”
Russell hopes to start patching the holes in the City of Miami’s sinking ship and steer it toward major structural reform.
“I want to come back and really make big reformative changes,” said Russell. “I don’t want to come back in and just write more environmental legislation. They could undo that after I leave. I want to come in and amend the charter of the city to encourage good government process and behavior and encourage good people to run for office.”
A key proposal in his reform agenda is to expand the Miami City Commission from five to nine seats.
“The power should rest with the residents and local business owners, not the elected officials,” said Russell. “A larger commission will really help increase accountability and local representation.”
He argues that five commissioners hold too much power, allowing small factions to dominate critical decisions. Expanding the commission, he says, would improve accountability and give neighborhoods like Coconut Grove and downtown stronger voices in city government.
Russell is also focused on addressing Miami’s growing housing crisis.
“Affordable housing has got to be our greatest crisis,” said Russell. “The government has to step in and create the right atmosphere and incentives for the world of development to provide the product that we want.”
His plan uses government tools, such as public land, tax breaks and zoning incentives, to encourage developers to build affordable units without losing profits. He believes the city can provide citizens with cheaper homes by offering these benefits in exchange for affordable housing.
Russell’s political career began in 2015 after he discovered that a park in his Coconut Grove neighborhood contained hazardous waste and metals. The city initially planned to cover the toxic soil with clean soil, but Russell pushed for its full removal.
“I didn’t really feel that I had a choice,” said Russell. “I was fighting with the city, and I ran for office as a result of that.”
He won in a surprise victory for the District 2 seat, which includes Brickell, Morningside and portions of Biscayne Boulevard, and was re-elected in 2019.
Now, Russell is campaigning as a reformer and a watchdog for government ethics.
He has spoken out against a proposal circulating at City Hall that could delay the election cycle for a year. He testified in the high-profile case involving Commissioner Joe Carollo and Ball & Chain, a Little Havana bar that was under fire from Carollo.
“I’m more offended as a resident of the city, constantly seeing the policy makers take self-serving moves that enrich themselves,” said Russell. “As a candidate, I almost have to thank them for just showing their true colors all the time.”
Elieen Higgins
Elieen Higgins, 60, made a name for herself as “La Gringa” in 2018 when she first ran for office in District 5 of the county commission, which includes Little Havana, Brickell and South Beach. Now she’s setting her sights on the mayor’s seat.
“City hall has basically been in chaos,” said Higgins. “And when city hall is in chaos, nothing gets done for the people. I want to restore confidence by getting things done, restoring confidence, by delivering for the residents, and I have a track record to do that.”
Higgins recently began a third four-year term after securing re-election without opposition. A downtown Miami resident, she will have to leave many of those who supported her behind during city qualifying in September.
She will also leave behind a swing seat on the commission – which is now majority Democrat, but could turn red.
Many are apprehensive about her imminent departure from the county dais.
“I think it would be a total waste,” said Cindy Lerner, former mayor of Pinecrest. “A waste of her ability.”
But Higgins believes her experience at the county has made her a strong candidate.
“What I’ve learned at the county is what I’m going to bring to the city,” said Higgins. “Residents know I get things done. The City of Miami needs a mayor that’s experienced and ethical.”
Higgins is an aggressive campaigner. In 2020 she fought back when her opponent, Renier Diaz de la Portilla, pictured her in a campaign ad wearing a Che Guevara-style beret and being anti-police. She responded by picturing him with Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro in front of a Chinese flag. (He called the ad false and confusing.)
Born in Ohio, Higgins – who has a net worth of $4.2 million – grew up in a small business family and understands the challenges of building a business from scratch. And supporting small businesses is one of her top priorities as mayor.
It’s work she has already taken on at the county level, offering educational business classes and creating loan funds.
“If we neglect these small businesses,” said Higgins. “We’re really missing the boat.”
Higgins is also preparing to take on flooding issues by speeding up the permitting process and making critical infrastructure updates.
“There is a huge backlog in the city that needs to be accelerated,” she said.
She also acknowledges the housing crisis facing the community.
“If people cannot afford to live here, they can’t work here,” she said. “And we are at risk of a vibrant future.”
June Savage
June Savage is a longtime Miami real estate agent who has worked from Coconut Grove to Wynwood. She believes her 25 years of experience in real estate give her unique insight into Miami’s growth and its gaps.
“I was born and raised here,” Savage said. “So no one knows the diversity more than I do.”
Though she wouldn’t discuss her plans in detail – for fear of being copied, she says – a central tenet of her platform is improving the city’s quality of life by coordinating better communication across districts.
“As a mayor, you do not vote, but you can veto,” Savage said. “What I will be doing is merging conversations between all of the districts to put our minds together… I’m very good at negotiations.”
She adds that her real estate background has enabled her to see that low-income housing stems from discounts that developers get to build certain projects.
“Developers will not get a pass-go with me,” she says.
Savage proposes bringing mobile outreach units to low-income neighborhoods, a concept similar to blood donation vans, to help residents understand their eligibility for loans and housing assistance.
“We have a lot of seniors that can’t even afford food and rent at the same time,” she said.
Though she’s never held elected office, Savage points to her long-standing involvement in the community, including as a former PTA and gifted program president. She’s also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Barnacle Society.
“I’d like to see a new slate for the City of Miami,” she said. “Someone who not only has grown up here and seen the city grow, but who has the experience.”
Michael A. Hepburn
Michael A. Hepburn, 42, is a community activist, lifelong Miamian and descendant of one of the 162 Black men who signed the incorporation papers to create the City of Miami in 1896.
He’s run for three elected positions, including the US House and the Miami Commission, since 2014. Now, he’s entered the race for city mayor. If elected, he says, he would become the city’s first top Black elected official, the second Miami-born mayor and the youngest ever chosen.
“The cost of living… is the most pressing issue that we have,” said Hepburn. “My policy and my initiatives… all come from that one concept — how do I lower the cost of living for working-class families?”
He says his platform includes cutting the city’s property tax rate to its lowest point since the 1960s, developing 9,000 affordable housing units over four years and expanding assistance programs for seniors.
He also wants to speed up infrastructure repairs, improve the city-run trolley system and expand youth programs and scholarships.
“We need to end corruption at City Hall,” he said.
A graduate of FIU, where he studied sports management and served as student government vice president, Hepburn has spent the past two decades working on more than 11 civic boards and local initiatives. He started a scholarship foundation for Miami high schoolers, launched a neighborhood association and graduated from the Miami Police Department’s Citizens Academy.
He believes civic empowerment is the city’s biggest failure and its best hope. “You have a city with that type of disconnect, it’s really easy to have corruption… because no one is paying attention,” he said.
Hepburn says his campaign is about restoring civic trust in a city where, for too long, regular residents have been left out of the conversation.
“What are you doing to make tomorrow better, not just for you, but for your colleagues, your peers, and your neighbors?” he asks.
Ijamyn Joseph Grey
Ijamyn Joseph Gray, 45, has experienced everything the city has to offer. That includes incarceration in his 20s and a bout of homelessness after Hurricane Irma in 2017.
For Gray, who was born and raised in Coconut Grove, the housing crisis tops his list of concerns. Gray says the city’s misunderstanding and misapplication of area median income is leaving many neighborhoods behind. He also points to inadequate police presence, storm drainage issues, transportation access for the elderly and the need for historic preservation.
At the core of his campaign is youth empowerment. “I believe a better tomorrow starts with our youth today,” said Gray. He founded an initiative called Encouraging Dreamers Breaking Barriers, which employs young people, some from troubled backgrounds, through his car wash business. The program pays $15 an hour and has secured city contracts, including for cleaning police vehicles.
“You once put us in the back of your cars,” Gray said, referencing police-community relations. “Now we get a chance to detail your cars.”
Gray wants to expand the model across municipalities, hoping it will reshape perceptions and create opportunities.
“If the powers that be truly cared about our communities and our youth, they would be behind me,” he said. “But they haven’t been. Thank you to Mayor Suarez. He has.”
Gray is also campaigning on cultural and historical preservation. He plans to restore grave sites of Miami’s Black pioneers, including Charles Avenue in Coconut Grove and Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, and to uplift landmarks neglected for decades.
“Go look at those things and you just see the difference,” he said. “You can’t even tell who’s buried there.”
Gray says his mayoral run is about second chances and collective progress. In 1999, he was arrested for felony battery on a law enforcement officer and given a year of probation, which he violated, records show. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to four felonies, including carrying aconcealed firearm and possession of cocaine with intent to sell. He was sentenced to three years in prison as a habitual felony offender. In 2010, he was arrested for felony habitual driving with license suspended and given one day of probation.
But, he says, he has turned his life around, and indeed back in 2020, his right to vote was restored.
“The power of the people is greater than the people in power,” he said. “Unity is more powerful than an atomic bomb.”
Emilio Gonzalez
Retired U.S. Army colonel and former Miami City Manager Emilio González is running for mayor, positioning himself as a candidate who can restore order and accountability to City Hall.
The Cuban-born González was director of Miami International Airport under former Mayor Carlos Gimenez. He also led U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President George W. Bush. He currently works as a partner at a California-based asset management firm.
González, 68, served as Miami’s city manager from 2018 to 2020. His tenure ended during a political conflict with the city commission, when he was accused of misusing his power to expedite a permit for his home.
He denied the accusation, and an investigation by the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission cleared him of any wrongdoing. The commission didn’t reach the supermajority vote needed to oust González, but he resigned, citing family obligations and the need to care for his ill wife.
Though he did not respond to two emails and has not answered multiple phone calls asking for an interview, his platform has publicly centered on transparency, fiscal oversight, and restoring public trust.
He pointed to the $400 million Miami Forever bond, which was created to address local issues such as sea-level rise and affordable housing. The bond was approved by voters in 2017. González questions whether those funds have been properly spent.
“It’s unknown,” he said, calling for public accounting and accountability.
González also wants to reform what he calls the city’s entrenched “political culture.”
Though he’s worked in local, county, and federal government, González insists he’s not part of the political establishment. “It was the actual political establishment that tried to fire me,” he told the Miami Herald.
In that same interview, González didn’t hold back in his critique of current city leadership: “If you don’t like the circus,” he said, “stop voting for the clowns.”
Christian E. Cevallos
Christian E Cevallos, 44, has served as member of the Miami-Dade community council for District 11 for six years, representing areas including West Miami, Kendall and Sweetwater.
He was born in Ecuador and moved to the United States with his family. He first worked in a pizza restaurant, but has become a successful businessman.
And he understands the challenges of launching a business and plans to ease the burden to residents.
“Businesses need to open within 90 days, that’s not happening right now,” said Cevallos. “It’s a waste of resources and a waste of money.”
He says the current inspection and permitting process is too long and costly and wants to help alleviate the straining process.
Cevallos earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in economics from Florida International University, he founded America ProBuilders, a company specializing in custom-built homes and residential projects in Miami.
Now a resident of Brickell, his interest in politics began almost a decade ago.
“In 2017, I went to a commissioner’s office, and it took me about three months to get the appointment,” said Cevallos. “I brought in a list of suggestions to help the community. That meeting lasted for not even three minutes. The commissioner gave me back that list and said, ‘You know what, take it. I don’t need it. None of those are no one of those ideas is going to work.'”
That experience was a turning point for him. He later decided to run for office himself.
Now, as a candidate for mayor, Cevallos is encouraging togetherness.
“I think I’m a different candidate,” said Cevallos. “I’m not coming to fight with anyone, I’m coming to work. We need to get a better city, a cleaner city, a transparent city and we need to work with the residents.”
