GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar wins re-election in Florida after clashing with Trump

GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar has won re-election in her Miami-based congressional district, NBC News projects, after having clashed with President Donald Trump over his immigration agenda. A recount that was completed Tuesday, one week after Election Day, showed that Salazar was narrowly ahead of her Democratic challenger, Eliott Rodriguez, by roughly 1,000 votes. In 2024, Salazar won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points. Salazar drew national attention in September when she released an ad criticizing Trump’s aggressive deportation policy. She said that many Hispanics felt “betrayed” by the crackdown and that the administration’s tactics had “gone too far,” with many deportations targeting individuals without criminal records. Trump carried Salazar’s district, which is heavily Hispanic, by 15 points in the 2024 presidential election. He responded to the ad by amplifying social media posts that labeled Salazar a “backstabber” and called for her to be replaced as the district’s GOP candidate. Rodriguez, a former local news anchor, tried to capitalize on the rift. He said Salazar had become “so politically toxic that now even Daddy Trump appears to be distancing himself from his problem child.” But Trump never officially rescinded his initial endorsement of Salazar. The close election spurred a legal battle after Rodriguez sued Miami-Dade’s election supervisor, Alina García, last week, alleging that she was biased in favor of Salazar and should recuse herself from the recount. Rodriguez claimed that García’s son-in-law was representing Salazar in the recount, which he said raised concerns about impartiality. Rodriguez also cited an interview in which García told The Miami Herald, “Maria Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount.” A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit Monday, saying the allegations Rodriguez laid out were not adequate grounds to remove García from carrying out her duties, while adding that García’s remarks had been “perhaps unwise.” With one of the largest concentrations of immigrants in the U.S., Miami has been on the front lines of Trump’s deportation campaign, with more than 130,000 pending removal cases — the most of any county in the country. Salazar’s district has been heavily affected, as it spans multiple working-class, largely Hispanic enclaves, though it also encompasses some of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the nation. Notably, the district is also home to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously represented Florida as a U.S. senator. In 2024, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Miami-Dade County in 36 years. Florida’s 27th District is now set to be home to Trump’s presidential library. Salazar was first elected to the seat in 2020, when she defeated former Health Secretary and former University of Miami President Donna Shalala in a major upset. The victory foreshadowed the Miami area’s rightward shift in the years that followed.