The fight for a South Florida congressional seat isn’t getting nasty, it started nasty.
Republican Maria Elvira Salazar is looking to keep her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
State Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat, is bucking for it.
DECISION 2022
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"What we have is somebody who lies, Who does not actually represent our community,” Taddeo said in a recent interview about her opponent.
Salazar is sharp with her words too.
"Unfortunately, she is talking about other topics that are not what is in people’s minds,” she said.
Congressional District 27 spreads from Miami west to the Florida's Turnpike, then south to Cutler Bay. The race is one of the most competitive in the country.
Salazar is serving her first term in the district after defeating Democrat Donna Shalala in November 2020. Shalala had defeated Salazar for the seat in 2018.
Taddeo successfully flipped Florida's Senate District 40 from Red to Blue in 2017. She ran in the Democratic primary race for Florida governor this year but dropped out to run for the District 27 seat.
On Thursday, Salazar met with constituents at a West Miami grocery store, mingling with the crowd, with the conversations focused on inflation. She placed blame squarely on Taddeo’s Democratic Party.
"Eggs should not be costing 50% more, or gas, or shoes, or plastics," she told reporters. "My opponent unfortunately needs to defend the undefendable, that is the problem with the Democrats, they do not want to talk reality and reality is people are paying $750 more a week to buy the same thing they were buying two years ago."
Taddeo touts her internal poll showing the two candidates in a statistical tie, which is notable being that Salazar is the incumbent, having already served two years representing the district.
Taddeo also boasts of a staggering endorsement from prominent Miami Republican Al Cardenas, a giant in Florida GOP politics.
“It is the first time in four decades where I am actually endorsing a Democrat for Congress,” he said at a recent campaign event. "So, I have decided that loyalty to my country and loyalty to what’s right is really more important than the loyalty I’ve had to my party for forty years."
Much of Taddeo’s campaign message is focused on reproductive rights, critical of Salazar’s support for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe versus Wade.
Taddeo said Salazar fits the role of a MAGA Republican, spreading lies about the 2020 election.
"I am running against someone that actually says that the whole thing is a big lie and repeats the lie of the election, these are unacceptable things from a member of Congress," Taddeo said.
