Eliott Rodriguez, an Emmy-winning South Florida journalist, announced Tuesday a challenge to incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar in November.
Rodriguez, a 69-year-old Cuban American television reporter, is running as a Democrat. A win would flip the seat to blue for the first time in six years.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I’m done thinking about it,” Rodriguez told the Phoenix. “This wasn’t on my bingo card but, if I didn’t do it now, I would hate myself.”
Born to parents who left Cuba during the 1950s, Rodriguez spent his early years in the Bronx, N.Y., until his family left for Miami when he was 12. Besides a few years as a local Philadelphia reporter in the 1980s, Rodriguez says he’s lived in the 27th district since his family’s Florida move.
His entrance into the race could set up an ex-reporter vs. ex-reporter battle. Like Rodriguez, Salazar was a prominent journalist for more than 35 years before her foray into electoral politics. She is a five-time Emmy-winning reporter who worked for Spanish-language news organizations like Telemundo and Univision.
As the incumbent, Salazar is so far unopposed within her party. Rodriguez would need to fend off former prosecutor Robin Peguero for the Democratic nomination.
If elected, Rodriguez said, his top priority would be lowering the cost of living. A University of North Florida poll released last week showed that half of the respondents identified affordability as their biggest issue, the Miami Herald reported.
“[Rep. Salazar] is not doing her job,” he said. “People are being priced out of their homes. … Their needs are not being met by Maria Elvira Salazar.”
The prospect of a potential Rodriguez run began last month, after he told WLRN he was “strongly considering” challenging Salazar. This came after he retired from CBS Miami in December after more than 25 years with the South Florida news organization and nearly five decades in journalism.
Rodriguez criticized Salazar, 64, in a January video titled, “Silence is Not Leadership,” by the nonprofit Keep Them Honest. It targeted GOP representatives for bowing to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
“She has not done enough,” he said in a later WLRN interview. “For someone who calls herself a champion of immigrants, she sure has not done enough.”
Salazar has had a mixed response to Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigration. Although she posited over the summer that Trump is the Abraham Lincoln of immigration, in January she wote a Miami Herald op-ed insisting she’s a vocal opponent of mass deportations. She pointed out her opposition to the White House’s attempt to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans.
Salazar beat one-term Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala for the seat in 2020. Created in 2012 to encompass a large swath of Miami, the seat has been held by a Republican every year except for Shalala’s two-year stint. In 2024, Salazar trounced her Democratic opponent by more than 20 points.
As for Rodriguez?
“I will be an honest Congressman,” he said. “If you have a voice, it’s time to raise it. … We’re in danger of losing our democracy.”
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