With the Nov. 3 election near and early voting underway in South Florida, candidates from both major parties along with voter mobilization groups are rallying voters to get to the polls.
Salazar leads rally for Republicans in Miami-Dade
On Friday, U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar teamed up with Republican congressional colleagues U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, at a get-out-the-vote rally at the Westchester Regional Library in Miami-Dade.
“We’re not only trying to deliver on the right politics and the right policies, we’re also delivering on the economy,” Salazar told the crowd. “We, together, passed on the House of Representatives that bill that right now they are questioning. Hell, if that BBB would have not passed, all of us would be paying higher taxes. We just don’t remember because now we’re paying little taxes.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law in summer 2025, extended tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that were set to expire and added several new tax cuts. It also included historic cuts to safety net programs including Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for low-income people, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps.
Miami-Dade has the most registered voters of any county in Florida, with more than 1.3 million. Republican voters comprise about 35% compared to 32% Democrats; about 30% are No Party Affiliation voters.
Salazar and former CBS Miami anchor Eliott Rodriguez, a Democrat, are competing for Florida's 27th congressional district in a race that has garnered national media attention. The district includes Miami, Coral Gables, Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay. Almost three in four district residents is Latino
Unions, immigrant rights group hold 'early vote' party
UNITE HERE Local 355 union leaders and members hosted an “Early Vote Party and Bus” with labor unions and immigrant rights groups in South Florida to urge Latino voters to cast ballots in this year's midterm elections.
They specifically targeted U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar for voting to pass President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" last year. It included about $75 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency over four years, including $45 billion for new immigration detention beds and $30 billion to hire 10,000 ICE employees, upgrade facilities and more.
Organizers said the bus took registered voters to early voting locations in Miami-Dade. More than 235,000 voters have cast ballots in Miami-Dade, as of Saturday morning.
UNITE HERE Local 355 leaders said the union has gone door-to-door to 30,000 homes in Florida's congressional district 27 (Salazar's district) to urge voters to go to polls.
They said the district's "working-class Latino voters are expressing anger and frustration with the rising cost of living in South Florida, including rent, gasoline, and health care, and the continued attacks on immigrant communities."
A new statewide poll of Hispanic voters released Friday shows that this group is especially worried about the high cost of living. Sixty-two percent of families surveyed said they are worse off financially than a year ago, and inflation and everyday costs matter most to them.
'Souls to the Polls'
On Sunday afternoon, Equal Ground, a statewide group working to boost political power among Blacks, said they are bringing together local faith leaders, churches, community members, advocates, and elected officials to persuade hundreds of Miami-Dade voters for get-out-the vote efforts, including phonebanking and "Souls to the Polls" events to urge voter participation the first weekend of early voting.
They are partnering with League of Women Voters Miami-Dade County, Congressional Black Caucus Institute, National Black MBA South Florida Chapter, and Fair Election Center Campus Vote Project to encourage Black Miami-Dade residents to "make their voices heard by casting their ballots this election."
"After an unprecedented mid-decade partisan redistricting, which Equal Ground challenged, and a Florida Supreme Court ruling that allowed unconstitutional congressional maps to stand, Souls to the Polls is turning out Black Floridians in force to prove no map can silence them and show they still hold the power to vote for the change they want to see in their communities," said Equal Ground leaders in a statement.
In Florida, the Legislature this year made the rare move of redistricting mid-decade, leaving the state with only one Black-majority district, Florida's 24th. It was part of a nationwide strategy President Trump pushed last summer try to to prevent losses in the 2026 midterms.
The latest data shows that Blacks comprise about 12% of Florida's registered voters, or nearly 1.7 million.
