Former CBS Miami TV anchor Eliott Rodriguez won tonight's Democratic primary for Florida's 27th congressional district by a slim margin – 53.5% to 46.5%, with 72% of the votes in.
Rodriguez faced off against former local prosecutor Robin Peguero in the primary and will now move on to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, who was first elected in 2020 and has since been reelected twice.
Rep. Salazar won her primary by a wide margin.
She celebrated the win with an X post.
Honored to once again be your Republican nominee for Congress in Florida’s 27th District! 🇺🇸🗳️
Thank you, Republicans, for choosing results over rhetoric, an independent voice over party bosses, and freedom over socialism.
In Congress, I will continue voting for what is best… pic.twitter.com/h0MHZxT9MG
— María Elvira Salazar 🇺🇸 (@MaElviraSalazar) August 18, 2026
The South Florida district, which is heavily Latino, includes downtown Miami, Coral Gables, Virginia Key, Pinecrest, Kendall, Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay.
Although President Donald Trump won Miami-Dade County in the 2024 election, his immigration policies have proven unpopular in the region the 27th district covers, which has a high immigrant population.
So, the Democrats could give the Republicans a run for their money. However, one of the few issues Salazar has broken from the Republican Party on is immigration, which could give her an edge with the moderates in the general election.
While in office, Salazar, whose parents are Cuban exiles, pushed the Dignity Act, which would give some undocumented immigrants a legal status to protect them from deportation. Rodriguez criticized the bill for not providing a path to citizenship.
Rodriguez listed immigration as one of the reasons he decided to run for the seat.
"I’m running because families in Miami can’t afford to live here anymore, because our democracy is under real stress, and because the politics of cruelty toward immigrants is not who we are," Rodriguez's campaign website states. "I’ve spent forty years telling South Florida’s story. Now I want to fight for it."
