The Democratic candidate Eliott Rodríguez responded this Saturday to the controversial move by Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who published a video criticizing Trump's mass deportations, and stated in comments disseminated by EFE that the maneuver is nothing more than a tactical reaction to the tight polls they face in District 27 of Florida.
"I find it very strange that she is now releasing this video saying she is against Donald Trump's immigration policy. Let's be very clear, that immigration policy is her own. She voted for it. This is what María Elvira Salazar represents, and the people in this district know it," Rodríguez stated.
The trigger for the controversy was a bilingual video that Salazar recorded in front of the White House on Wednesday, in which she directly confronted the president about his immigration raids and warned that the Hispanic voters who brought him to power "now feel betrayed."
Rodríguez, former host of CBS Miami for 25 years and also a Cuban-American, went further and accused Salazar of being "an accomplice" to the same policies he now claims to reject.
In a video posted on his campaign account days earlier, the Democratic candidate pointed out that Salazar desperately sought Trump's support and then voted to fund a $100 billion allocation for immigration agents, which in his view makes her directly responsible for deportations, ICE harassment, and family separations.
"She is complicit in all of this. She voted for this and provided Donald Trump with the money and the tools to do it. Now, just 47 days before the elections, she is trying to convince voters that she is opposed to it," Rodríguez stated.
The candidate also expanded his argument beyond immigration. In a second video published on Friday, he pointed out that Miami is the most expensive city in the United States, more so than New York or Los Angeles, and that around 10,000 people a year leave the metropolitan area due to the cost of living, a topic that Salazar, according to him, deliberately avoids.
"She is worried about her reelection, and rightly so. This race is not about Donald Trump receiving poor advice on immigration. It's about the working families who put food on the table and pay their bills," she stated.
The electoral context supports Rodríguez's interpretation of the polls. An internal measurement from Bendixen & Amandi International for his campaign places both candidates tied at 45% among likely voters, with Trump registering a 54% disapproval rating in a district where 73.5% of the residents are Hispanic.
The reaction to Salazar's video was immediate from multiple fronts. The Department of Homeland Security responded on Wednesday by stating that "there will be no amnesty for illegal immigrants, now or ever."
Trump himself, the next day, maintained his support for Salazar but disagreed with her criticisms: “I support her, and yes, I have seen it. I do not agree with her,” and added that “María won only because of me.”
A analysis by experts described Salazar's decision to publicly confront the president as "very rare," with Professor Sean Foreman from Barry University warning that Trump "usually responds with even harsher criticism towards the person who questions him."
The general elections in District 27, one of the six Florida seats considered competitive by the Democrats, will be held on November 3, 2026.
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