The Case Against María Elvira Salazar

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The one thing Floridians can’t stand is a politician with a problem with the truth. With every passing year, South Florida voters see María Elvira Salazar for who she truly is; just another lying politician who lies. Whether it is her support for Trump’s mass deportation agenda or money she falsely claims to bring back to the district, working families can’t trust her word. Her actions always tell the real story – one of deflection instead of accountability, hypocrisy instead of transparency, and looking out for her billionaire and corporate donors instead of the people of Miami.

For years, South Florida families invited Eliott Rodriguez into their lives on their TV, computer, and phone screens and trusted him to deliver the news about their friends, families, and neighbors – and Eliott takes that responsibility seriously. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rodriguez knows what South Florida is going through, not just because he covered it for decades, but because he’s lived it. He’s fighting for lower costs because his own family has had to leave Miami due to Salazar’s economic failures. He’s fighting for Miami-Dade’s immigrant communities because they’re also his communities. Eliott has a track record in Florida’s 27th Congressional District that voters can trust.

The Hispanic voters that make up the vast majority of voters in FL-27 have swung drastically against Republicans in the last two years. This shift is so intense that late last year, Miami voters elected their first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades. Hispanic voters are tired of Salazar’s broken promises, and they are tired of Republicans demonizing their communities. This November, voters are going to elect Eliott because they know that unlike Salazar, he won’t roll over to party bosses but will stand up and fight for them at every turn.

Thanks to Salazar, Miami-Dade is Now the Most Expensive Place in the Entire Country

The cost of living in the Miami-Dade metro has now surpassed that of New York City and Los Angeles, and working families are finding it harder and harder to stay in the communities they grew up in. Families are getting squeezed from all sides, and Salazar supported the policies that caused this crisis.

Salazar’s failure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits created further burden on the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who relied on these subsidies to make health care affordable. Not only did she fail to sign on to a discharge petition that would’ve forced a vote on ACA tax credit extensions, she was later forced to delete a tweet claiming that she did, and previously voted to kick over a million Floridians off their health care all to pay for tax giveaways to the richest people in the country.

Now, because of Salazar, Florida leads the nation in the number of people who dropped their Affordable Care Act coverage. With less people insured across the state, premiums are going through the roof and emergency rooms are being flooded. Some Florida seniors have seen their monthly health care costs jump by 259% from approximately $700 a month to more than $2,600. For seniors often living on a fixed income, these astronomical rate hikes are existential. With Florida ranked among the most difficult states for seniors to make ends meet and almost a quarter of Florida’s elderly population living in poverty, some seniors are even considering living in their cars as the health care crisis continues. Florida used to be considered a top-tier state for Americans looking to spend their retirement in a state that was affordable, warm, and provided access to high quality health care – thanks to Salazar, that is no longer the case.

It’s not just health care. In South Florida, tourism is down, costs are up, and families are struggling to choose between housing, groceries, and paying the bills. Salazar voted eight separate times to uphold the tariffs that are crushing small businesses and increasing the cost of food, with FL-27 families paying on average more than $3,000 more due to tariffs. Even worse, the industry being hit the hardest by Salazar’s tariffs is the one most crucial to solving South Florida’s cost of living crisis: Tariffs have raised the cost of homebuilding projects by as much as 15%. South Florida already faces a massive housing crisis – some Floridians are paying up to 50% of their income to rent and many are choosing to move away from the Sunshine State citing the high cost of housing.

Salazar voted to fund Republicans’ war-of-choice in Iran, claiming that it would not be “a long-term conflict.” It has now been nearly 6 months and the war is still ongoing, gas prices are still rising, and voters don’t see any relief in sight.

For Eliott Rodriguez, Miami-Dade’s cost of living crisis isn’t just an abstract idea – for him, it’s personal. The father of six daughters, Rodriguez’s family is his driving force, just like it is for so many working Floridians who work hard to provide for their families. Only a few weeks ago, one of Rodriguez’s daughters was forced to leave South Florida with her family because they simply couldn’t afford to live in the area. Eliott knows that stories like his are not unique, they’re happening all over Florida’s 27th Congressional District. That’s why one of his top priorities is addressing Miami-Dade’s astronomical cost of living, starting with the cost of housing. Eliott believes that when billionaires are moving in and pushing out working families that have been in their communities for decades, that’s a problem – and he’s going to Congress to fix it.

Salazar is Cashing-In On Her Seat in Congress – And Lying to Floridians’ Faces While She Does It

Salazar doesn’t just have a net worth in the millions, she’s also one of Congress’ most prolific stock traders. She is frequently called out for her *timely* stock trades and position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and other subcommittees. Florida voters are right to question whether Salazar is looking out for them or her own bottom line. While she increases her million dollar net worth as well as voting to raise costs in Congress, Salazar can’t stop lying to Florida’s working families about what she’s actually doing while in office. Salazar was caught red-handed taking credit for legislation that she voted against, like in a now-infamous clip from 2024. And she clearly hasn’t learned her lesson. On top of her now-deleted tweet claiming to have signed on to a discharge petition to extend the ACA tax credits, she’s been back at her old tricks, claiming credit for money coming to the district that she voted against – and Floridians are taking notice.

Like many Floridians, Eliott Rodriguez is sick and tired of lying politicians who use their position not to help working families but to enrich themselves, and he’s going to fight in Congress to put an end to it. And he’s not stopping at banning members of the government from trading stocks and getting rich off of insider information: He wants to stop the government from taking ownership of private companies like Intel – the exact kind of socialism that his parents and many South Florida voters came to Florida to escape.

Salazar Wanted A Deportation Army – And She Got Her Wish

In 2024, Salazar called for Trump to create a ‘deportation army.’ Now, she wants to talk a big game about protecting Miami-Dade’s immigrant communities while proudly funding the mass deportation machine she wanted in the first place. Salazar’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ didn’t just rip health care away from millions of Floridians, it also gave Trump’s ICE $75 billion to expand their detention and mass deportation efforts. Just this month, small businesses are closing, jobs are disappearing, and Miami-Dade’s economy is being hard-hit once again following Trump’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. While Salazar can pretend to advocate for TPS recipients, the truth is that she voted to end the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela parole program in 2023. Salazar doesn’t get to cry foul now – she knew exactly what she was doing when she voted for each and every one of these efforts to rip apart families in Miami-Dade’s strong and diverse immigrant communities. Now the cruel immigration enforcement that Salazar funded is throwing Miami-Dade into chaos, worsening the health care worker shortage and threatening seniors’ ability to get the care they need.

Miamians are taking notice of Salazar’s two-faced Trump sycophancy. Late last year, a coalition of Miamians, including notable Cuban Americans, launched campaigns of ads and billboards calling out Salazar’s refusal to stand up to Trump and betrayal of their communities.

Eliott Rodriguez is the son of two Cuban immigrants. He has seen firsthand what the American Dream is, and he believes that it is being ripped away from Miamians today. Rodriguez will fight for Miami-Dade’s immigrant communities to have the respect, safety, and fair shot they deserve.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Florida Politics: House Dems slam María Elvira Salazar for blaming SCOTUS, not Donald Trump, for Venezuelans losing TPS [Florida Politics, 05/20/25]

Miami Herald: ‘The streets are empty’: Haitians recede from public in South Florida as TPS ends [Miami Herald, 08/08/26]

“That withdrawal is creating consequences that extend beyond the immediate question of who might eventually be forced to leave the United States. The end of TPS is beginning to test the economic and social relationship between South Florida and one of its largest immigrant communities, whose presence has added vibrancy to the region’s culture. Some of the effects are already measurable: Workers have lost jobs at South Florida’s two main international airports and at dozens of hotels, while one of the region’s largest public healthcare systems says dozens of its employees have been affected.”

HuffPost: ‘I Cannot Really Remember’: GOP Rep. Busted For Taking Credit For Bills She Voted Against [HuffPost, 01/29/24]

“Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) on Sunday got called out for routinely taking credit for delivering money to her district — after opposing the bills that provided that money. During an interview on CBS News Miami, host Jim DeFede asked Salazar about a ceremony she attended last month where she presented a check for $650,000 to help small businesses at Florida International University.”

Political Cortadito: María Elvira Salazar strikes again, takes credit for money she voted against [Political Cortadito, 09/29/25]

“Bad habits die hard. Or not at all. Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar must really think we’re all a bunch of bobos.

A few days ago, the rarely-seen congresswoman made one of her once-in-a-blue-moon visitas públicas to the district — this time to Cutler Bay — to smile wide and brag about delivering a $4.4 million check for local road projects, public safety improvements, and coastal resilience work. Signed by herself. From her office. Except for one little problem: Salazar voted against the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that included that little allocation.”

WLRN: Former CBS-4 anchor Eliott Rodriguez cites deep local roots in bid to win seat in Congress [WLRN, 07/13/26]

“Former CBS-4 Miami anchor Eliott Rodriguez said Sunday he’s the best candidate to unseat Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, citing his decades-long journalism career and being a lifelong resident of Florida’s 27th Congressional District.

‘People in this district know me because they invited me into their home every night to present the news in a fair and objective fashion, a truthful fashion, and I worked hard to earn their trust,’ Rodriguez told Glenna Milberg, host of WPLG-10’s This Week in South Florida.”

Florida Politics: Eliott Rodriguez reports $500K raised, wave of endorsements as third rating shift hits CD 27 race [Florida Politics, 05/28/26]

“The veteran CBS anchor-turned-Democratic candidate announced this week that his campaign has raised more than $500,000 since he entered the CD 27 race in March.
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Rodriguez’s fundraising announcement Thursday comes alongside a plethora of endorsements and a notable development in how independent forecasters are viewing the race. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball this month became the third nonpartisan outlet to shift CD 27 in Democrats’ favor following Rodriguez’s entry, joining CQ/Roll Call and Cook Political Report, which marked similar movements in March and April.”

PATH TO VICTORY

Florida’s 27th Congressional District has the highest share of Hispanic voters in the entire state, making them a key voting block for winning this district. Latino voters are turning away from the Republican party at record-breaking levels thanks to their failed economy, broken promises, and overzealous immigration enforcement that has unleashed an undertrained, masked army on the streets to meet quotas instead of making us safer by deporting dangerous criminals. Miami voters are ready for new leadership, and late last year, they elected their first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades.

Despite Republican efforts to shore up Latino support, Biden came within two-tenths of a point of winning this district in 2020, and Democrats have won in FL-27 at the House, Senate, and Gubernatorial levels in 2018. In a district that has been highly competitive for multiple cycles, the combination of Hispanic voter swings with a strong Democratic candidate like Eliott Rodriguez who resonates deeply with voters in South Florida, this November presents the best opportunity for Democrats to flip FL-27 in years.

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