Rep. María Elvira Salazar won her Miami seat by 20 points two years ago. This time she leads Democrat Eliott Rodriguez by about 1,100 votes, close enough to trigger a mandatory recount in Florida’s 27th District, WLRN reported. The district runs from Little Havana to Cutler Bay and west into Kendall, and about 70% of voters are Latino.
Now the recount itself is a fight. Rodriguez is demanding that Miami-Dade’s elections supervisor step aside after she was quoted saying Salazar had already won.
Why is there a recount in Florida’s 27th District?
Because the margin is under half a percentage point, Florida law requires one. Salazar declared victory anyway on election night in Key Biscayne, but her speech sounded more like a warning to her own party: “It’s no doubt that it’s a moment of celebration. But also it’s a moment of reckoning.” She said voters want her party “to course-correct on the economy and on immigration.” She’d told Trump in a September ad that his immigration crackdown had ‘gone too far’.
Rodriguez won’t concede until the count is done. “Tonight, if you ever doubted that every vote matters, this is proof that every vote matters,” he said.
Why does Rodriguez want the elections supervisor to recuse herself?
Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia was quoted by the Miami Herald at Salazar’s election-night party saying, “María Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount.” Rodriguez’s campaign also says Salazar’s recount lawyer, Robert Fernandez, is Garcia’s son-in-law, and asked the office to confirm it, WLRN reported. “A candidate can declare victory. An election official responsible for the canvass should know better,” campaign attorney Jason Blank wrote. Garcia’s office hadn’t publicly responded as of Thursday.
Update, Nov. 6: Miami-Dade’s canvassing board finished its count Friday morning with Salazar ahead by 1,090 votes, down from 1,325 on election night, NBC 6 reported. The recount could start as early as Monday or Tuesday. Rodriguez also filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia, alleging bias after she declined to step aside, and named Salazar in the suit, NBC News reported. The county’s general counsel said it’s unlikely the result will be overturned at this margin.
The BeezLoop Take
A race this close should be settled by counting, and the recount will do that. But an elections supervisor declaring a winner at one candidate’s party, before the recount, is exactly how people lose faith in the count. If her son-in-law really is representing one side, she should step back. That’s basic, and it protects the result whoever wins.
The bigger story is the margin itself. A Republican who won by 20 is clinging on by about a thousand votes in a heavily Cuban American district, a sign that the socialism attack line is losing its power against prices and deportations.
The open question: will Garcia step aside from the recount, and does Salazar’s lead hold?
Sources: WLRN · WLRN (recusal demand) · CBS Miami (video)
