On paper, Democrat Eliott Rodriguez and incumbent Republican Maria Elvira Salazar have plenty in common. They are both Cuban-American, both former broadcast journalists in South Florida, and both interviewed Fidel Castro during their careers.
But as the two are locked in a nationally watched tight race for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, Rodriguez said that’s about as far as the admittedly deep similarities go.
“ I think I have a different view of the world,” said Rodriguez during a sit-down interview at his campaign headquarters in Miami’s The Roads neighborhood. “ I'm a lifelong Democrat. My dad was a Democrat as well. He admired Lyndon Johnson for signing the civil rights law and also for allowing Cubans to come to this country during the 1960s, so I continue that tradition in my family.”
The race on paper slightly favors Salazar. But poll watchers have in recent weeks acknowledged that the race has become more competitive in a tough election cycle for Republicans.
With the approval rating for President Donald Trump at an all-time low, a large enough swing of independents or Republicans toward a Democrat could push Rodriguez across the line for a seat that has twice traded parties over the last decade.
Key issues in the race have emerged as immigration, cost-of-living and U.S.-Cuba policy.
Rodriguez: long career in broadcast journalism
Rodriguez was born in New York City to Cuban immigrant parents who left the island prior to the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that swept communist policies into power on the island. He worked in broadcast journalism for over 40 years, with the vast majority of it in South Florida. But Rodriguez said he chose to leave his job at CBS Miami last year as Skydance Media bought Paramount, making President Trump’s ally David Ellison a controlling owner of CBS News. Ellison quickly moved to bring conservative commenter Bari Weiss in to control CBS News operations.
“She’s pretty much decimated 60 Minutes and went into one of the most hallowed organizations of journalism in this country, and I didn't wanna be part of it. I said, ‘I don't wanna read an email from this lady. I don't wanna meet this lady when she comes to Miami.’ And so I left with no hard feelings,” said Rodriguez.
After some thought, and contemplating the state of the nation during the second Trump administration, Rodriguez said he decided to challenge Salazar for the 27th Congressional District, which runs from Little Havana down the coast to Cutler Bay and westward into Kendall.
Rodriguez said he always had opinions about the world but restrained himself while being a neutral newscaster. The cost of living in Miami has pushed his daughters to leave Miami-Dade County for more affordable areas, he said, highlighting a core focus of his campaign. But seeing the widespread impacts of the Trump administration’s signature mass deportations led him to run for office.
“ It's about demonizing and dehumanizing people and scapegoating immigrants and and blaming immigrants for everything that's wrong with this country. If the rents are too high, it's because of the immigrants. If food prices are too high, it's because of the immigrants. If your dog is missing, an immigrant ate your dog. The president literally said that during a debate,” said Rodriguez. “That goes against what I have always believed this country represents.”
At the national level, Rodriguez told WLRN he particularly objects to masked ICE agents roaming the streets. Many fellow Democrats have called for the outright abolition of ICE in the wake of its controversial tactics, but Rodriguez stopped short of saying that’s where he stands.
“ I want to abolish the practices that we're seeing ICE agents commit. That should not happen in this country. So I definitely want to change, restructure ICE. If they wanna change the name of it, that's fine, but what's happening right now is not acceptable,” he said.
Salazar’s immigration record
Since she was first elected in 2020, Salazar has positioned herself as a moderate voice on immigration. Yet her moderation has frequently been met with skepticism if not anger from conservative voices that are increasingly hardline on immigration.
Salazar’s campaign did not respond to interview requests from WLRN.
Salazar has been pushing for her signature bill the Dignity Act since 2022. The proposed bill would allow many undocumented immigrants to stay and work legally in the United States with the potential of legalizing their status – with no path to full citizenship – so long as they work for 10-years and pay $10,000 restitution to the federal government. At the same time, the bill calls for increased border security.
Before being murdered last year, prominent Republican activist Charlie Kirk warned fellow conservatives that Salazar's plan was a “ruse” that would “grind President Trump’s mass deportations to a halt.” He added: “This is worse than ‘soft amnesty.’ This de facto ends the mass deportations Americans just voted for.”
Salazar’s attempt to walk the tightrope between representing her largely pro-immigrant constituents and fitting into the partisan hardline conservative world was revealed in her response. “Dignity Act is not amnesty. No path to citizenship. No handouts. It’s a path forward for our economy and our future,” she wrote on X. “Deportations of criminals and anyone who came under Biden will continue.”
Specifying that those who "came under" Biden would be deported was no small matter. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Venezuelans received humanitarian parole during the Biden administration, groups that are close to her constituency. Likewise, President Trump was already signaling that he would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who received the designation under the Biden administration, opening up a core sector of her base to deportation proceedings. TPS officially ended for Venezuelans just last week, and Venezuelan-American communities like Doral have been deeply impacted by ICE operations.
Mere weeks after the exchange with Kirk, Salazar voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a top priority for fulfilling the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Among other things, the bill increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ten-times over, making ICE the most funded federal law agency in the country, with more money than many foreign militaries.
After voting for the bill, Salazar wrote on X: “This is more than legislation, it’s a victory for every American chasing the dream. Built on freedom, opportunity, and hard work.”
Using money from the bill, the Trump administration has carried out an aggressive mass deportation campaign.
In July, ICE reported the arrest of nearly 50,000 people, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration. ICE topped that record August when arrests topped 50,000 people, according to figures published by the Department of Homeland Security.
Congressional race tightens
By September, as polls show an increasingly competitive race for reelection, Salazar’s tenor on mass deportation changed. In a campaign ad that received national attention released last month, Salazar looked directly at the camera and said in both English and Spanish: “Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far … The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
President Trump, who has repeatedly endorsed Salazar, including in the current election, then shared several posts of others criticizing Salazar on his Truth Social network. One post called her a “back stabber.” Asked about her comments, Trump said he "understands what she is saying,” but that he still supports her. “I’m very strong on the borders, and she isn’t,” said the president.
Salazar has supported limits on birthright citizenship, a topic that has emerged as a major concern during the second Trump administration. In 2018 she said she agreed with President Trump on the issue, calling it “complicated”: “The Constitution says very clearly that those that are born here are citizens, but we need to see to what extent.”
Rodriguez rejects that there is any complication on birthright citizenship, a measure that is written into the 14th Amendment. The Trump administration lost an effort to ban birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants earlier this year, and is currently trying to chip away at the principle of blanket birthright citizenship through a series of more narrow measures.
“ I have birthright citizenship,” said Rodriguez.
In recent weeks, a testy interview between Salazar and CBS4 Miami’s Jim DeFede from January 2024 has resurfaced on social media in which she promoted funding coming to her district from the federal government — even though she voted against the measures that brought the funding.
Conflicting Cuban policies
The United States is in the middle of imposing an effective oil blockade against Cuba, turning what was already a dire humanitarian situation into a much deeper crisis, according to the United Nations and other international groups.
Salazar, who is close with fellow Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has celebrated the fuel blockade and an ever-growing list of sanctions against Cuba, saying the measures are needed to force political changes on the island. As island authorities warned that they had run out of fuel stockades and that the Cuban people would suffer the consequences of the oil blockade, Salazar said it was simply a sign that the dictatorship’s stranglehold on the island was “cracking.” She has enthusiastically reposted with enthusiasm spontaneous protests taking place in Cuba, saying the end of communist governance is drawing near.
“For the first time in decades, Havana is being forced to stand on its own, and it is failing. The regime has lost its lifeline. Fuel has not reached the island in months, the lights are going out and the system is collapsing in real time,” she wrote in a Miami Herald editorial. “This moment did not happen by accident. It is the result of sustained pressure, led by President Trump, that exposed the regime’s fragility. No president in recent memory has confronted it with greater strength. If anyone can force real change, it is him.”
Under pressure, the Cuban government recently wrote broad free-market economic reforms into law, increasing the role of the private sector in the nation. But the government has scoffed at the idea that it will implement broad political reforms to match the economic ones.
For her entire tenure in Washington, Salazar has positioned herself as a leading voice on Latin American policy, partly owing to the fact that she is one of the few fluent Spanish-speaking members of Congress along with the very nature of her district.
“ I acknowledge that she has postured herself as being the expert on what's happening in Latin America,” said Rodriguez. “But when we look at what's happening in Cuba, it's not what she's told us would happen, so I'm wondering how much influence does she have? When you look at what's happening in Venezuela [after the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro], it's not what she's told us.”
For Rodriguez, the maximum pressure stance towards Cuba is indefensible, because regular Cubans are caught in the middle of a geopolitical battle.
“ I do not support starving people to death in Cuba. I do not support having people in Cuba live without electricity and running water. I don't support that because it's inhumane. It's not really getting us the results that many Cuban-Americans like myself are hoping for in Cuba,” said Rodriguez.
As a journalist, Rodriguez visited the island several times, including during the visit of President Barack Obama in 2016, as the nations reopened diplomatic relations. He worries about the on-the-ground impact of hardline U.S. policies towards Cuba, adding that he still has family on the island that lives in the Havana municipality of Regla.
“ To get there you have to take a ferry. I've taken it many times. It's a poor working class area there in Cuba, and I'm not looking to make them suffer more,” said Rodriguez. “ I believe that what Cuba needs is a transition toward democracy, and that transition must be heavily focused on the economy. Because once the economy starts growing and Cubans see that small businesses can thrive, free enterprise can be something that they can take part of in Cuba, then we will see changes.”
The outlook to November
The district was long represented by Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a moderate Republican who was strongly pro-immigrant and pro-LGBTQ rights. In 2018, she did not run for reelection and the seat was won by Democrat Donna Shalala, who bested Salazar that year. But Salazar won a rematch in 2020 and has held the seat since.
Salazar’s vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill led to a major tax cut that she said shows that she is fighting for everyday families.
Yet despite that tax cut, U.S. consumer confidence has fallen lower than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when tens of millions lost their jobs or during the rapid inflation under President Biden.
Also included in the One Big Beautiful Bill was a major cut of Medicaid subsidies that will go into effect after the next month's election. Rodriguez said tens of thousands of 27th District residents will lose their healthcare once that part of the law goes into effect, and he blames Salazar for what is coming.
“ That was planned so that people wouldn't pay attention to what's going on, but I'm paying attention to what's going on. And one of the first things I wanna do in Congress is fight to have those subsidies that people were cut off from restored,” said Rodriguez. “ This is something that María Elvira Salazar has brought on this district.”
