Rep.-elect Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.-27)

Date of birth: Nov. 1, 1961
Residence: Miami
Occupation: journalist
Education: B.A., University of Miami; M.P.A., Harvard University
Family: husband, two daughters

Maria Elvira Salazar defeated her opponent, one-term congresswoman and former Clinton Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, returning Florida’s 27th Congressional District to Republican control after the retirement of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 2018.

Salazar was raised in Miami and Puerto Rico by Cuban parents that immigrated to the U.S. as Fidel Castro was rising to power. Salazar went on to study at the University of Miami before getting a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Salazar rose to prominence as a broadcast journalist, working for Univision, Telemundo and CNN Español. She was stationed across Latin America for much of her journalism career, covering the civil war in El Salvador that stretched into the 1990s before reporting from Cuba and covering the Castro government.

She has interviewed world leaders ranging from U.S. presidents and Castro to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Salazar’s experience covering what she calls oppressive communist regimes was a consistent theme in her campaign, saying her goal in running for Congress was to “stop socialism from ever coming and ruining America.”

This was Salazar’s second attempt at winning the seat, losing to Shalala in 2018 by 6 points. 

– Rebecca Beitsch