- Maria Elvira Salazar won re-election against Democrat challenger Annette Taddeo
- Salazar easily defeated Taddeo, getting 57.9 percent of the vote
- The race was positioned as one of the nation’s most competitive, but late-stage polling showed indications of Salazar pulling away
Maria Elvira Salazar emphatically defeated challenger Annette Taddeo in FL-27 by just under 15 points, capping off a race that was billed to be one of the nation’s most competitive.
With 95 percent of ballots accounted for, Salazar’s vote count swelled to 134,489, topping Taddeo, who failed to cross the 100,000 vote threshold with 99,820.
The voting district encompasses several of Miami-Dade County’s wealthiest areas including Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, and Pinecrest.
“2022 is the Year of the Hispanic Republicans,” declared Salazar upon her victory.
Salazar fundraised upwards of $5 million through the duration of her campaign, picking up strong endorsements from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez along the way
Go, @MaElviraSalazar! https://t.co/Y9OlA0uzhB
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) November 9, 2022
The competitiveness of the race was largely predicated on the constituents, rather than the candidates themselves. In the 2020 presidential election, the Republican Donald Trump garnered 47.97 percent of the vote within the district, while Joe Biden slightly led with 51.26 percent.
FL-27 has also flip-flopped in recent years, electing a series of lawmakers across both ends of the political spectrum. In the last decade, voters elected the Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Democrat Donna Shalala, and Salazar.
With her re-election, it can be assumed that Salazar will work to have a more successful legislative record, going her entire first term without passing a piece of legislation,
Salazar’s track record is an area of attack utilized by Taddeo, though it ultimately proved ineffective.
Taddeo entered the race with strong headwinds after dropping out of the Democrat gubernatorial primary. Any momentum built up by Taddeo, however, seems to have died off in the final weeks of her campaign.
Taddeo terminated her gubernatorial campaign in early June, opting to run in FL-27 after it became clear the Democrat gubernatorial primary would come down to Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried.
Salazar also benefited from a GOP-flipped Miami-Dade County, as Republicans enjoyed a “red wave” year statewide.