This story was produced in partnership with nonpartisan news organizations and universities across the state working to provide information about the 2026 elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org.
In Florida’s 27th Congressional District, a household needs to earn more than $108,000 annually to afford a two-bedroom rental without spending more than 30% of its income on housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
That affordability challenge is a central issue in the Nov. 3 race between Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar and Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez. Both have made lowering costs a priority, but differ in their approaches to addressing South Florida’s housing crisis, immigration enforcement and health care.
Both candidates are Cuban American and former South Florida television journalists. Salazar, first elected in 2020, is seeking a fourth term. Rodriguez, a longtime CBS Miami anchor, is making his first run for Congress after more than four decades in journalism.
The Florida Trib made multiple requests to interview both candidates. Salazar’s campaign said it could not accommodate the initial request, while Rodriguez’s campaign did not respond to requests for an interview.
Competing housing plans
Salazar focuses on increasing the number of available homes through federal legislation and funding. She helped develop provisions in the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law in July. The provisions authorize a grant program to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into housing, subject to federal funding.
“At the heart of America’s housing crisis is a simple problem: we are not building enough homes,” Salazar said in a July statement.
Her office says she also secured $3.5 million for Miami’s Flagler Affordable Senior Housing Project, planned to provide 60 affordable apartments for seniors. Construction was underway in July.
The housing crisis has hit close to home for Rodriguez, who wrote in a March Miami Herald essay that his daughter and son-in-law moved to North Carolina because they could not afford to buy a home in Miami-Dade County.
“Washington needs to focus much more aggressively on what families actually pay to live,” Rodriguez wrote in a September candidate questionnaire.
His housing proposals include converting underused federal land into affordable housing, encouraging construction near jobs and transit, and expanding assistance for first-time homebuyers. He also supports a federal backstop to stabilize Florida’s homeowners insurance market.
Immigration enforcement and reform
The candidates agree on border security but disagree over the terms of immigration reform in a district where nearly three-quarters of residents are Hispanic.
Salazar’s bipartisan Dignity Act, reintroduced in 2025, would expand border enforcement and allow qualifying undocumented immigrants to live and work legally through a seven-year program requiring $7,000 in restitution. Those who complete the program could obtain renewable legal status, but not a path to citizenship. The bill has not passed Congress.
She also voted for the 2025 federal tax-and-spending law, which provided $45 billion for immigration detention. But in a September campaign advertisement, she criticized the detention of immigrants without criminal records, telling Trump: “Some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.”
Rodriguez supports more immigration judges and protections for Dreamers while seeking changes to ICE enforcement. Asked by CNN whether he supported Salazar’s bill, Rodriguez responded, “Well, absolutely not,” objecting to its lack of a citizenship pathway for participants in the main program.
He told WLRN he wants to “change, restructure ICE,” not abolish it.
Health care and federal spending
About 249,000 district residents, or 31% of the population, were enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans in 2026, the highest total of any congressional district, according to KFF.
Salazar voted for the 2025 federal tax-and-spending law, which tightened Medicaid eligibility and reduced federal health spending. The Congressional Budget Office projected it would leave about 10 million more Americans uninsured nationwide by 2034.
In January, however, Salazar joined 16 other Republicans and House Democrats in voting to extend enhanced ACA premium tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. The measure passed the House but has not become law.
“I know firsthand how many families in FL-27 depend on this assistance to afford care,” Salazar wrote in a January social media post.
Rodriguez criticized the Medicaid changes and told WLRN in October he would “fight to have those subsidies that people were cut off from restored.”
He has also pledged to protect Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage and proposes a voluntary Medicare buy-in for adults ages 55 to 64.
Campaign support differs
Federal Election Commission records show Salazar reported $2.52 million in receipts through Oct. 14 and $1.68 million in cash on hand. Rodriguez reported $1.57 million in receipts and about $622,000 on hand.
Despite that fundraising gap, both candidates say South Florida needs relief from high housing costs.
Salazar points to legislation and federal funding secured during her tenure. Rodriguez proposes additional housing and insurance measures while challenging her votes on immigration enforcement and health care.
