In a last ditch effort to motivate Democrat voters in the Miami-Dade Commission District 5 race, a number of state and local Dems are doing a full press court for Eileen Higgins, the sole blue candidate among three Republicans in this non partisan race.
“My friend Eileen Higgins has the commitment, smarts and energy to be a wonderful public servant,” posted state Rep. Nicholas Duran. “#EarlyVoting runs through the weekend and #ElectionDay is May 22nd #GoVote @eyesonmyworld has my support.”
Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and congressional candidate Matt Haggman are among the many Dems that are trying to get 
blue voters engaged.
All the way from Tallahassee, Mayor Andrew Gillum took a break from his gubernatorial campaign to talk with Higgins and then encourage his followers to support her: “Had a great chat with @eyesonmyworld earlier today and we need to help get her across the finish line THIS coming Tuesday 5/22 in Miami-Dade,” Gillum tweeted Saturday, referring to Higgins’ and her twitter handle. “She’s the progressive leader we need. Get involved & make a plan here,” he went on, posting the website and #BlueWave2018.
A day earlier, Miami-Dade Democrats tweeted “Of 200K+ residents, 1K have voted early in person and 6K have voted by mail. This special election will come down to turn out. Last chance, remind your friends in District 5 to vote Eileen Higgins @eyesonmyworld this weekend, before election day.”
Even though this is a non partisan race, Democrats have an opportunity here to advance someone new via the very motivated anti-Trump voters and, possibly, change the balance of power on the county commission. They are taking this very seriously. At both the Democratic primary debates for the Congressional District 27 race, Democrats have told the audience to vote for Higgins and to tell their friends to, too.
The recent tweets take that push to a new level. And maybe it pushed more people out to vote on the last day of early voting Sunday, with 252 people casting ballots at the four libraries, only two fewer than on the first day. But, seeing as how it is also the last day, 
maybe the tweets did nada. It’s not direct voter contact. Higgins needs a robocall. Or two.
The total for early voting, which generally tends to lean Democrat, is 1,698. That compares to 7, 029 absentee ballots, which generally tend to lean Republican, that were returned as of Friday. Ladra expects at least another 500 between now and Tuesday.
Higgins is the sole Democrat running against two Republicans to replace former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who resigned abruptly last month to run for Congress. Well, three, but nobody counts radio host Carlos Gorin. Not when you have former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Zoraida Barreiro, the commissioner’s wife, sucking all the air out of the room.
How come we don’t see Marco Rubio tweeting for his old House mate? Or Ileana tweeting for Zoraida? Feels like the Republican establishment is just not as gung-ho about their prospects in this race.
Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in special District 5 county race added by Ladra on
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