Standing as a councillor for the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdL) party, Mussolini secured more than 8200 votes after ballots were counted in more than 97 per cent of the Italian capital’s polling stations.
In local elections, Italian voters can choose a list or tick the names of candidates.
Elected a city councillor in 2016, on a civic list supporting FdL leader Giorgia Meloni, Mussolini ran in this election on an FdL ticket.
She said her success in Rome is a result of hard work and not her surname.
“I have learned to live with my surname since I was a child,” she told Italian daily La Repubblica.
“At school they used to point at me, but then Rachele emerged and the person prevails over a surname, however burdensome that surname is.
“I have many friends on the left and I am certain that one of them voted for me.”
Named after Mussolini’s first wife, the councillor is the daughter of actress Carla Maria Puccini and jazz pianist Romano Mussolini, the fourth and youngest son of Il Duce.
She is the half-sister of former far-right politician, Alessandra Mussolini, who left politics last year.
Meanwhile, FdI is hoping its candidate, Enrico Michetti, will defeat the centre-left in a Rome mayoral elections runoff, to be held on October 17 and 18 after outgoing mayor Virginia Raggi failed to get re-elected.
Michetti, who is backed by the far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI), led in the first round and will face Roberto Gualtieri, a former economy minister, in the second ballot.
