María Elvira Salazar Bio
María Elvira Salazar (born November 1, 1961) is an American journalist, author, and Republican politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 27th congressional district since 2021. A former Spanish-language television reporter and anchor, she built a three-decade career at Telemundo before entering politics. She is also a Republican assistant whip in the House of Representatives.
Salazar first ran for Congress in 2018 and lost to former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala. She defeated Shalala in a 2020 rematch and was re-elected in 2022 and 2024. In office, she has focused on foreign policy, immigration, and opposition to socialism, with a particular emphasis on Latin America and U.S. relations with Cuba.
Early Life and Background
María Elvira Salazar was born in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, the daughter of Cuban exiles. She grew up bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English, and spent part of her childhood in Puerto Rico. Her family’s background shaped her lifelong interest in Cuban affairs and Latino politics in South Florida.
She attended the Deerborne School of Coral Gables and went on to graduate from Miami Dade College. In 1983, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of Miami, and in 1995 she completed a Master of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Path to US Politics
Salazar’s journalism career began in 1983 as a general assignment reporter for a local Miami television station. In 1984, she became a senior political correspondent for the Spanish International Network, which later became Univision. By 1988, she was covering the White House and the Pentagon as a correspondent for Univision.
In 1993, Salazar joined the Telemundo Network, where she served for roughly a decade as a senior political correspondent covering Cuba. Her 1995 interview with Fidel Castro at the Cuban mission to the United Nations became a defining moment; she is widely cited as the only U.S. Spanish-language television journalist to interview Castro one-on-one. After leaving Telemundo in 2002, she hosted political talk shows on America TV 41 and later Mega TV before returning to anchor a nightly newscast in 2016.
Her transition to politics began in March 2018, when she announced her candidacy for Florida’s 27th congressional district. She won the Republican primary by roughly 15 points and went on to face Donna Shalala in the general election.
María Elvira Salazar Career
Early Career (1983–2002)
Salazar’s early broadcast work established her as a leading Spanish-language political journalist in the United States. She covered Central America during the Salvadoran Civil War as Univision’s bureau chief and later participated in a 1996 political debate in Miami between Ricardo Alarcón and Jorge Mas Canosa, the founder of the Cuban American National Foundation. Her reporting earned her five Emmy Awards for work on Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
During this period, she also built a portfolio of high-profile interviews, including conversations with presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Vicente Fox, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, José María Aznar, Alvaro Uribe, and Juan Manuel Santos. She has also appeared frequently as a guest on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax programs.
Florida’s 27th District Elections (2018–2020)
Salazar’s first run for Congress came in 2018, after retiring Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen endorsed her as the type of candidate who could keep the seat in Republican hands. She won the GOP primary by a comfortable margin but lost the general election to Donna Shalala, who received about 52 percent of the vote.
In August 2019, Salazar announced a rematch, secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and won the August 2020 Republican primary unopposed. Despite being rated as a Likely Democratic seat by political analysts, she defeated Shalala 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent. She was one of 19 new Republican women elected to the House in the 2020 cycle, with her victory credited in part to concerns over socialism among Miami’s Cuban-American voters.
U.S. House Tenure (2021–Present)
Sworn in to the House in January 2021, Salazar missed the certification vote for the 2020 presidential election because of a COVID-19 quarantine. She later voted against removing President Donald Trump via the 25th Amendment and against his second impeachment. She was one of 11 Republicans to vote to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments and one of 35 Republicans to support a January 6 commission.
Salazar has been a leading voice on Latin American policy, reintroducing the Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends (FORCE) Act in January 2023 and introducing the Crucial Communism Teaching Act, which passed the House in December 2024. She introduced the Dignity Act, a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and in January 2024 introduced the No AI Fraud Act to address AI-generated deepfakes. She was the sole member of Congress to attend the inauguration of Argentine president Javier Milei in December 2023.
Notable Events and Milestones
Salazar’s 1995 interview with Fidel Castro remains a signature moment of her journalism career and a flashpoint in her political life. Her 2020 defeat of Donna Shalala was a major upset in South Florida politics, and her ongoing work on Cuba policy, immigration reform, and anti-communist education has defined her congressional tenure.
María Elvira Salazar Family
Family Background and Personal Lineage
Salazar was born in Miami’s Little Havana to Cuban exile parents, and she has described her family background as central to her political identity. Her upbringing in a bilingual, Cuban-American household informed her early reporting and her later focus on Cuba policy in Congress.
Personal Life
Salazar lives in Miami with her two daughters from her first marriage to Renzo Maietto, which ended in divorce in 2010. In 2022, she married businessman Lester Woerner. That marriage ended in October 2024, when their divorce was finalized by a court order in Palm Beach County, Florida.