News · Politics

María Elvira Salazar wins the Florida District 27 recount by 1,086 votes

The machine recount supervised in Miami-Dade confirmed on November 10 the Republican congresswoman's lead over Democrat Eliott Rodríguez: 124,519 votes to 123,433, according to figures from The Associated Press reported by Periódico Cubano and Martí Noticias. Certification is still pending.

Salazar took 124,519 votes, or 50.22%, and Rodríguez 123,433, or 49.78%: a gap of 1,086 ballots, about 0.44 percentage points, out of nearly 248,000 votes counted in Florida's District 27.

Florida law requires an automatic machine recount when the gap between candidates is 0.5% or less. The process began on Monday, November 9, in Doral, supervised by Miami-Dade election authorities and with observers from both campaigns, and covered in-person, early and mail ballots. The initial lead of 1,090 votes fell to 1,086 without changing the candidates' order.

«The recount is over and our victory has been confirmed», Salazar announced. She has held the seat since January 2021 and with this result secures a fourth consecutive term. The congresswoman thanked Republicans, Democrats and independents for their support and praised the work of Miami-Dade election staff.

The recount was accompanied by a court dispute: Rodríguez's campaign asked for Miami-Dade elections supervisor Alina García to be removed from the board overseeing the process, questioning her impartiality over earlier remarks favourable to Salazar and a family tie to one of the Republican's lawyers. Federal judge David S. Leibowitz rejected the emergency request on Monday, November 9.

Official certification of the results is still pending and the two sources give different dates: Periódico Cubano puts it on Friday, November 13, and Martí Noticias on the 17th.

The race pitted two figures of Cuban origin who came from television journalism: Salazar, the daughter of exiles and for years an anchor on Spanish-language television, and Rodríguez, an anchor at CBS Miami for 25 years. With this result, Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress keep their seats: the re-election of Mario Díaz-Balart in District 26 and of Carlos Giménez in District 28 had already been called.

Sources: Periódico Cubano · Martí Noticias

Data updated: 2026-11-11T04:15:00.000Z

María Elvira Salazar wins the Florida District 27 recount by 1,086 votes | Yamacoa Observatory