Democrats say María Elvira Salazar is ‘panicking’ after Hispanic vote shifts

U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar is calling for Republicans to push for more Hispanic-friendly policies, including her signature legislation to ease the naturalization of undocumented immigrants, following her party’s recent losses.

Hispanic voters last year helped President Donald Trump return to the White House, she said, but now they’re turning their back on the GOP as the cost of living continues to rise and the administration fails to humanely address America’s immigration issues.

Salazar warns that Hispanics are “only dating the GOP” and will return to supporting Democrats unless the party pursues meaningful policies that help them.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) says Salazar is “panicked” after seeing Hispanic support for her party sink this month, and it’s due to problems she has helped to exacerbate.

In a two-minute video posted to X, Salazar spoke of how Hispanic voters gave Republicans a chance “for the first time ever last year,” with 55% of Hispanic men casting ballots for Trump.

Since then, affordability has worsened and there is a steady stream of footage online showing masked immigration officers violently snatching people off the street, from their workplaces and even while trying to address their legal status in court.

According to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, 71.5% of detainees held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention as of Sept. 21 had no criminal conviction, and many of those convicted committed only minor offenses like traffic violations.

“Hispanics want the same thing as any other American: secure borders, a good economy, get rid of the bad hombres. But they also want to give dignity to those who have been here for years (and) do not have a criminal record — people that may not have a legality, but who have been here contributing to the economy and to the country,” said Salazar, whose “Dignity Act” proposal would enable undocumented migrants to pay their way into naturalization.

“If the GOP does not deliver, we will lose the Hispanic vote all over the country, and unfortunately, it happened (on Nov. 4) in New Jersey and Virginia. Hispanics moved back more than 25 points to the Democratic Party — 25 points. … The GOP would have had a much better chance of winning (if) the Hispanics’ vote would have stuck with the GOP.”

But Salazar, who represents one of the nation’s most Hispanic-majority areas in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, has contributed to many of the troubles she now decries, the DCCC said. The organization said Salazar remained silent as more than 231,000 of her constituents faced nearly 100% cost increases in their health insurance premiums.

She also voted to kick nearly 100,000 of her constituents off their health care and gut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding by $300 billion while failing to protect hardworking immigrant communities as Trump removed their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a DCCC press note said.

“María Elvira Salazar should spend less time screaming into her phone and more time looking in the mirror,” DCCC spokesperson Madison Andrus said in a statement. “What Salazar saw on Tuesday night was a glimpse into her own future — the voters are going to send her packing too next November.”

The DCCC’s criticism of Salazar isn’t entirely accurate. Last week, Salazar was one of 32 House members to sign a bipartisan letter to Senate leaders about the looming spike in Affordable Care Act premiums when the enhanced tax credits expire. The letter says families are “facing drastic spikes to their health insurance costs” and warns that “millions will lose their health care coverage because they will no longer be able to afford it,” urging a bipartisan fix.

She did, however, vote for Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and its related budget framework that would, per Congressional Budget office projections, eventually cause millions to lose coverage, including roughly 100,000 people in CD 27, and reduce SNAP benefits.

There are multiple examples of Salazar publicly pushing back on the Trump administration’s immigration moves. In January, she sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security pressing the Trump administration to protect migrants in former President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole program. In the letter, she argued that people who entered under the program “should have the ability to see their applications out” and that only those with criminal records or existing deportation orders should be removed.

Another example came in October, when Salazar applauded the destruction of boats and their crew who were suspected of carrying drugs into the U.S., but pleaded with Trump not to deport Venezuelan TPS holders after the Supreme Court allowed their protection to end.

“We must not send a single law-abiding Venezuelan back until conditions change, and right now they are only getting worse,” she wrote.

In July, Salazar reintroduced The Dignity Act, for the second time. The measure, first introduced in May 2023, has yet to be heard in committee.

Three Democrats are competing in a Primary for the right to challenge Salazar next year: entrepreneur Richard Lamondin, lawyer Robin Peguero and accountant Alex Fornino.

Through Sept. 30, Salazar raised close to $681,500 this cycle to defend her seat in Congress, while Lamondin raised $452,500, Peguero collected $330,000 and Fornino took in close to $28,000.