Maria Salazar

Maria Elvira Salazar, the victorious Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida's 27th district, gestures after voting in the midterm elections at an early voting location in Coral Gables, Florida.Lynn Sladky/AP

María Elvira Salazar, the Republican Congresswoman who has represented District 27 in Miami since 2021 and is one of the few GOP lawmakers this election cycle who spoke out against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, appears likely to win reelection, defeating her Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez. As of Wednesday morning, she had a razor thin margin of fewer than 1,500 votes of the more than 247,000 cast, so a recount may be likely in the coming days.

A Cuban American, Salazar was a veteran TV journalist before joining Congress. Endorsed by Donald Trump, she handily won her district in 2024 with a 20-point lead. But this year’s race proved to be a tighter one, as Trump’s popularity continued to tank and his anti-immigrant policies devastated families in her district.

Likely the most notable moment of the race was Salazar’s ad in which she called out Trump for his immigration agenda. “Some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar said, noting that half of the people arrested by ICE in July had no criminal records. “The same Hispanics that helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.” The ad sparked a backlash from Democrats, such as her opponent Rodriguez, who said she was complicit in Trump’s immigration policies. The ad also drew the ire of some Republicans and the Department of Homeland Security. “Whether Congresswoman Salazar likes it or not, the men and women of ICE are enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” the agency said in a statement.

A Message to President Trump on Immigration | María Elvira Salazar pic.twitter.com/memcf4jags

As I reported in September, many experts have viewed this race as a test of how far Trump’s popularity has cratered with the Latino community, which gave him significant support in 2024. But in this election, residents of this district voted 14 points more in favor of the Democrats than in the presidential race, the New York Times reported. Still, the shift toward blue was not enough for Rodriguez to defeat her. As I wrote last month:

Eduardo Gamarra, political science professor and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at Florida International University, said Salazar is “trapped between trying to defend her position as somebody who is very supportive of the president, and at the same time trying to demonstrate that she is a dedicated defender of immigrants in her district. Those two things have been diametrically opposed objectives.”

Also working against Salazar is that her opponent, Eliott Rodriguez, is, as Pérez told me, “familiar to people” in South Florida. The son of Cuban immigrants, he was born and raised in New York City. His family moved to Miami when he was 12. He worked for nearly 50 years as a journalist, spending the latter half of his career at CBS News Miami, where he spent many years as a news anchor before retiring last year.

Rodriguez can also run on the affordability crisis unencumbered by the political baggage of being in the governing party while gas and everyday costs for families have risen in the last year. “Eliott can run on affordability; he can run as the real defender of immigrants,” Gamarra said. “And he can also differentiate himself from Trump without any penalty.”

Rodriguez, who was endorsed by Bill Clinton, focused his campaign on affordability, protecting healthcare, creating humane immigration policies, and standing up to Trump. Democrats running in Miami typically must confront accusations of socialist ties from Cuban-American Republicans who fled the island due to Fidel Castro’s communist regime. Salazar tried this approach, linking Rodriguez to Democratic socialist and US Senate candidate Angie Nixon, who was defeated on Tuesday by incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody. Salazar’s campaign funding, which totaled $2.4 million, also outpaced Rodriguez’s $1.34 million in fundraising, Florida Politics reported.

“Tonight, the people of Florida’s 27th District have spoken, and I am deeply honored to have earned your trust once again!” Salazar wrote on X on Tuesday night. “To every Republican, Democrat, and Independent who placed their confidence in me: THANK YOU. Your trust is a responsibility I will never take for granted.”

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