However, when Hennepin County District 2 Commissioner Mark Stenglein announced in June 2012 that he would resign, Higgins decided to run for that position.

Higgins was a member of the Senate's Capital Investment, Environment and Natural Resources, and Health and Human Services committees.

[2] Her special legislative concerns included housing, early childhood issues, health, communities of color, and the environment.

[1] Higgins is a writer, having worked as an editor for "The Physician and Sportsmedicine" medical journal for McGraw-Hill Healthcare Publications, and was also an assistant to Minneapolis City Council member Joe Biernat.

[1] Higgins has served on the boards of the Cedar-Riverside People's Center, the Council on Black Minnesotans, the Greater Lake Country Food Bank, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.