María Salazar | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2021 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's27th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Donna Shalala |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1961-11-01)November 1, 1961 (age 64) Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Miami Dade College University of Miami (BA) Harvard University (MPA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
María Elvira Salazar[a] (born November 1, 1961)[1] is an American journalist, author, and politician serving as theU.S. representative forFlorida's 27th congressional district since 2021.[2] She is aRepublican assistantwhip.[3] Before entering politics, Salazar worked for the Spanish-language networkTelemundo for three decades after serving as a news anchor for Miami-basedWSBS TV. She has also worked forCNN Español andUnivision.
Salazar was the Republican nominee for Florida's 27th congressional district in2018, losing toDonna Shalala. In2020, she defeated Shalala in a rematch. Salazar was re-elected in2022 and2024.[4]
Salazar was born in Miami'sLittle Havana neighborhood, the daughter ofCuban exiles.[5] She grew upbilingual, speaking bothSpanish andEnglish.[6] She spent part of her childhood inPuerto Rico.[7]
Salazar studied at the Deerborne School ofCoral Gables and graduated fromMiami Dade College.[8] In 1983, she earned aBachelor of Arts degree in communications from theUniversity of Miami. In 1995, she received aMaster of Public Administration from theHarvard Kennedy School.[9][10]
Salazar's journalism career began in 1983 as a general assignment reporter forChannel 23.[11] In 1984, she served as senior political correspondent for the National News in Spanish television in the U.S. for the Spanish International Network, which later becameUnivision. In 1988, she began working as aWhite House andPentagon correspondent for Univision. In 1991, she became the bureau chief at the Central America division of Univision while covering theSalvadoran Civil War.[12]
In 1993, Salazar started working for theTelemundo Network, serving later as senior political correspondent for Telemundo inCuba.[13] In 1995, she interviewedFidel Castro for Telemundo at the Cuban mission to theUnited Nations. She is said to have been the only U.S. Spanish-language television journalist to interview Castro one-on-one.[14][15]
In 1996, she was one of the two Hispanic journalists to participate in the only political debate in the 50 years after theCuban revolution between two politically active figures:Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Cuban Assembly, andJorge Mas Canosa, the founder and president of theCuban American National Foundation and one of the most famous supporters of the anti-Castro movement.[16]
Salazar worked at Telemundo[17][18] until 2002, when she continued her career as a journalist with America TV 41 with her own political news show,Maria Elvira Confronta.[19] In 2003, she moved to Channel 22.
In 2006, Raúl Alarcón, owner ofSpanish Broadcasting System (SBS), purchasedWSBS-TV (channel 22), and the channel is now known asMega TV. Salazar changed the name of her program toPolos Opuestos under the new owners. She maintained the debate dynamic of her show, but renamed itMaria Elvira Live![20][21]
She interviewed several individuals portrayed by actors in thetelenovelaPablo Escobar: The Drug Lord, including the imprisoned Escobar lieutenantJohn Jairo Velásquez.[22]
Salazar has said that after her interview with Castro, her second-biggest TV interview was with the former Chilean president,Augusto Pinochet, in 2003.[23][24] Chilean JudgeJuan Guzman cited the interview as a legal basis to rule Pinochet "mentally competent to stand trial for human rights violations".[25][26]
In 2013, Salazar interviewedCuban dissident and bloggerYoani Sánchez in New York City.[27][28]
Salazar has interviewed several public figures, including PresidentsBill Clinton (1999) andGeorge W. Bush (2001), Mexican PresidentsVicente Fox andCarlos Salinas de Gortari (2005), Spanish PresidentJosé María Aznar (2007), Colombian PresidentsAlvaro Uribe (2008) andJuan Manuel Santos (2014),[29] andMother Teresa.[citation needed]
She has frequently appeared as a guest onFox News television programs such asFox & Friends,[30]The O'Reilly Factor,[31]Tucker Carlson Tonight,[32]Hannity[33][34] andThe Ingraham Angle,[35] as well as Mornings with Maria[36] on the Fox Business Network and on the conservative networkNewsmax,[37] sometimes stylized under the nameElvira Salazar. Among her topics of discussion are immigration, border security and the fight against socialism.
In 2016, Salazar returned to Mega TV[20] as the anchor of the night newscast.[38]
TheMiami Herald reported in January 2018 that retiring congresswomanIleana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who had represented the 27th congressional district since 1989, had met with Salazar. Ros-Lehtinen said that her district was "totally winnable for the right candidate" from the Republican Party, adding that Salazar "could be the right candidate."[39]
In March 2018, Salazar announced her candidacy to represent the district, which includesMiami Beach, most ofMiami,Kendall, and parts of coastal southDade County. The traditionally Republican district, which includes wealthy communities like Miami Beach,Key Biscayne andCoral Gables as well asLittle Havana in Miami, had been trending Democratic in recent years.[40]
Salazar's Republican primary opponent,Dade CountyCommissionerBruno Barreiro, criticized her for her 1995 interview withFidel Castro, in which she called Castro a "comandante", as well as a 2016 appearance onFox News where she calledBarack Obama's rapprochement with Cuba "noble". Salazar called Barreiro's attack advertising "defamatory", saying, "I have been one of the staunchest, most hardest critics of the Cuban Revolution on the air."[41]
On August 28, 2018, Salazar won the Republican primary by a margin of about 15 points over Barreiro, her leading rival.[42] Former Clinton cabinet memberDonna Shalala won the Democratic nomination for the seat.[5] The only debates held during the general election campaign were in Spanish. Shalala does not speak Spanish and used an interpreter, giving Salazar an advantage. Each candidate declined opportunities to debate the other in English due to scheduling conflicts.[43] AlthoughHillary Clinton had won the district by almost 20 points in 2016 – Clinton's best showing in a Republican-held district – polling as late as a month before Election Day showed Salazar either narrowly ahead or statistically tied with Shalala.[44] Salazar lost to Shalala, who received about 52% of the vote.[45]
In August 2019, Salazar announced her candidacy to run in a rematch against Shalala.[46] She was endorsed by PresidentDonald Trump,[47] won the August 2020 Republican primary, and faced Shalala in the November general election.[48]The Cook Political Report, as well as various polling firms, classified the seat as "Likely Democratic", but Salazar won, 51.4% to 48.6%.[49][6] She was one of 19 new Republican women elected to the House of Representatives in the2020 elections.[50][51][52][53]Politico reported that Shalala attributed Salazar's strength to the potency of the socialism attacks among Miami's Cuban population, aided by Shalala calling herself a "pragmatic socialist".[54][55]
In late 2020, Salazar was identified as a potential member of the Freedom Force, a group of incoming Republican House members who "say they're fighting against socialism in America".[56][57][58][59] Due to her COVID-19 quarantine, Salazar missed voting oncertifying the presidential election results in the House on January 6, 2021. On January 12, the day she was sworn in to Congress, Salazar voted against removing Trump via the25th Amendment. On January 13, she voted againstTrump's second impeachment.[60]
On February 4, 2021, Salazar was one of 11 Republicans who voted to stripMarjorie Taylor Greene of herHouse Education and Labor Committee andHouse Budget Committee assignments in response to controversial statements she had made about school shootings atParkland andSandy Hook, among other things.[61] She released a statement on her vote, saying in part, "As I have repeatedly criticizedIlhan Omar for her anti-Semitic comments, I had to hold Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable for her denial of the Parkland Massacre, the Flight 77 crash, and accusing a Jewish family of starting the California wildfires. From now on, I will hold every Democrat to this new standard that they have created."[62]
On May 19, 2021, Salazar joined 34 other Republicans and all Democrats in voting to approve the creation of theJanuary 6 commission.[63]
In June 2022,Business Insider reported that Salazar appeared to have violated theStop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, a federal transparency and conflict-of-interest law that Salazar had criticized her predecessor Donna Shalala for violating, when she failed to properly disclose an exchange of non-publicly traded shares for publicly traded shares in healthcare company Cano Health worth up to $500,000.[64]
in September 2023, Salazar introduced theCrucial Communism Teaching Act, which passed the house in December, 2024.[65]
For the118th Congress:[66]
Salazar opposes taxpayer funding forabortion.[72][73] Salazar has voted to restrict access to the abortion medicationmifepristone and has also voted to eliminate resources for active-duty service members seeking reproductive care.[74] She has received an A+ grade fromSusan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.[74]
Salazar joined SenatorMarco Rubio in suggesting that birthright citizenship should be "reviewed", citing abuse of the law by foreign visitors to South Florida.[75] She has said she might be open to offering citizenship to some undocumented immigrants.[76]
Salazar said in 2018 that she wanted to do "whatever makes sense to the community"; of then-President Trump, she said, "The president has used pretty insensitive words. I will talk to him in a nice, respectful way, because I do respect the institution of the presidency."[77]
According to theRepublican Accountability Project, she voted against his second impeachment, but she supported "[creating]an independent commission" to investigate theJanuary 6 attack on the Capitol.[78]
In 2021, Salazar voted against theAmerican Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.[79]
Salazar publicly supported acarbon tax proposal by then-RepresentativeCarlos Curbelo, which many other Republicans rejected. One of Salazar's campaign commercials vowed to fight for environmental protection in Congress.[80]
During the discharge-petition effort on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Representative María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) was initially noncommittal, saying she was “still thinking” about how to vote on the petition and did not publicly support the measure to release the Epstein Files.[81]
The bill (H.R. 4405, the "Epstein Files Transparency Act") directs the release of certain documents relating to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.[82]
She later voted in favor of the measure when the House considered the bill on November 18, 2025 but only after President Trump weighed in.[83]
Local reporting noted that some critics described her change in position as "flip-flopping" after President Trump publicly urged Republicans to support release of the files.[84]
In March 2021, Salazar was one of eight Republicans to join the House majority in passing theBipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021.[85] She has called herself a "firm believer in the Second Amendment" while also saying that "ways must be found to keep guns out of the reach of those who should never have them, namely children, criminals and the mentally ill". She has endorsed criminal background checks and called for "effectively closing loopholes that allow criminals to have access to firearms." In October 2018, Salazar said she might also back anassault weapons ban.[76] She voted against the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022.[86]
In June 2022, Salazar voted to raise the legal age to buy some types of assault rifles from 18 to 21.[87] She was one of 14 Republicans to vote in favor of theBipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Salazar said that she would only support repeal of theAffordable Care Act if a viable alternative were presented. She opposed repeal of the ACA's mandate that health insurers coverpreexisting conditions, but called for "free market" policies on health insurance.[77]
Salazar sponsored the Dignity Act, a comprehensive immigration reform bill.[88][89] She is an original cosponsor of theAmerican Families United Act.[90]
Salazar is a supporter ofIsrael.[91] Salazar criticized President Barack Obama'spolicy of engagement with Cuba, saying that she would support lifting the U.S. tradeembargo against Cuba only once there is democracy in Cuba.[92]
On January 13, 2023, Salazar reintroduced the FORCE Act,[93] which "stops President Biden from normalizing relations with Cuba unless freedom and democracy are restored on the island".[94] She said thatdemocratic socialism means "misery, oppression and exile".[95]
Salazar is considered an ally of Argentine PresidentJavier Milei, the sole member of Congress to attend his inauguration, which was done at the invitation of the Argentine government. She argued that Argentina "is going to set the course and point of reference for the rest of Latin America as to the way that a country should be governed".[96]
On February 25, 2021, Salazar voted against theEquality Act, a bill that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to explicitly include new protections. Salazar said the bill "missed the mark by removing religious freedom protections."[97]
In 2021, Salazar co-sponsored the Fairness for All Act, the Republican alternative to the Equality Act.[98] The bill would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and protect the free exercise of religion.
In 2022, Salazar was one of six Republicans to vote for the Global Respect Act, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons responsible for violations of the internationally recognized human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people, and for other purposes.[99][100]
On March 2, 2021, Salazar andResident CommissionerJenniffer González introduced thePuerto Rico Statehood Admission Act.[101]
In an effort to combat the rise ofAI-generateddeepfakes,[102] Salazar introduced H.R. 6943: No AI Fraud Act into the118th United States Congress on January 10, 2024, to establish individual property rights to unique physical attributes, including voice.[103]
Salazar voted against theHonoring our PACT Act of 2022 which expandedVA benefits to veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during their military service.[104]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Donna Shalala | 130,743 | 51.8 | |
| Republican | Maria Elvira Salazar | 115,588 | 45.8 | |
| Independent | Mayra Joli | 6,255 | 2.5 | |
| Total votes | 252,586 | 100.0 | ||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Maria Elvira Salazar | 176,141 | 51.4 | |
| Democratic | Donna Shalala (incumbent) | 166,758 | 48.6 | |
| Total votes | 342,899 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Maria Elvira Salazar (incumbent) | 136,038 | 57.3 | |
| Democratic | Annette Taddeo | 101,404 | 42.7 | |
| Total votes | 237,442 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Maria Elvira Salazar (incumbent) | 199,159 | 60.38 | ||
| Democratic | Lucia Baez-Geller | 130,708 | 39.62 | ||
| Total votes | 329,867 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
Salazar has won fiveEmmy Awards for reports onNicaragua,Cuba, and theDominican Republic.[106] She was selected for the inaugural 2021Forbes 50 Over 50, made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over age 50.[107]
In 2010, Grijalbo, a branch name ofRandom House, published her bookSi Dios contigo, ¿quién contra ti? (ISBN 0307393267).[citation needed]
Salazar lives in Miami with her two daughters by her first husband, Renzo Maietto.[108][109] In 2022, she married businessman Lester Woerner.[110] The marriage ended in divorce in October 2024, finalized by court order in Palm Beach County, Florida.[111]
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 27th congressional district 2021–present | Incumbent |
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| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 280th | Succeeded by |
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