Veteran TV anchor Eliott Rodriguez spent more than 30 years covering Miami's politicians and now, after retiring from television, he is running to become one himself A longtime South Florida broadcaster who retired from CBS News Miami, Rodriguez launched his campaign in March for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, where he is seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Representative María Elvira Salazar, who has held the seat since 2021. "What I considered was how I felt about what’s going on in this country.
And I thought that if I don’t run, if I don’t do this, if I don’t take this opportunity to flip this seat, I may be angry, I may be depressed, I may be cursing at the television," Rodriguez told Newsweek in an exclusive interview. Florida's 27th District has drawn national attention in recent weeks after Salazar released an ad, filmed outside the White House, criticizing President Donald Trump's immigration policies. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far," she said in the ad.
Trump responded personally. Over the weekend, in a social media spree, he shared 13 posts on Truth Social criticizing Salazar, including calls for her to be primaried and replaced by another Republican. For Rodriguez, the whole episode shows that the race in the district, which is made up of parts of the city of Miami, Coral Gables, Kendall, Key Biscayne and Pinecrest, is wide open just weeks before the November election.
"The polling shows that I can beat Maria Elvira Salazar. So, I said, yeah, I'll do it. And it's going well, and I think we're going to win," he said.
Salazar's tenure in Congress has been characterized by extreme loyalty to Trump and his policies. The Cuban American former anchor was comfortably carrying the district earlier this year, but a series of missteps has put her at odds not only with Trump but also with her own voters. Her position toward immigration enforcement has been the most damaging one.
Salazar herself said some of Trump's efforts "have gone too far," but the policy has hit hard in a district that is majority Hispanic. It also has a large Venezuelan population, many of whom have felt the White House's actions firsthand over the past year, from the end of Temporary Protected Status to ICE arrests. "When I first saw the ad that she put out, I was surprised.
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