Bad habits die hard. Or not at all.
Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar must really think we’re all a bunch of bobos.
A few days ago, the rarely-seen congresswoman made one of her once-in-a-blue-moon visitas públicas to the district — this time to Cutler Bay — to smile wide and brag about delivering a $4.4 million check for local road projects, public safety improvements, and coastal resilience work. Signed by herself. From her office.
Except for one little problem: Salazar voted against the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that included that little allocation. .
¿Cómo se llama eso? Hypocrisy? No, this is worse. It’s straight-up gaslighting her own constituents. Pretending to deliver what she worked to deny.
Because if María Elvira had her way, Cutler Bay would be getting nada — no check, no infrastructure improvements, no money to protect against climate threats.
But that didn’t stop her from showing up with her press team to claim credit for it like she was Santa Claus.
“Infrastructure is about protecting families and improving quality of life,” Salazar said in a statement. “The Marlin Road project will make this corridor safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, while also reducing congestion and making daily commutes easier for everyone in Cutler Bay.”
“This is what we’re here for, to bring money, to bring money to District 27,” she said in a video posted on YouTube. “They came to Washington. They presented the project in a very accurate way and I said, ‘Sure, I think that the Cutler Bay residents deserve to have a better life.”
This isn’t the first time she’s done this. She is sorta famous for taking credit when it’s not due.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
Only a few months ago, she took credit for getting the temporary protective status extended for 18 months for 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. whose TPS had been rescinded by President Trump. It was a California judge who did that.
Remember when María Elvira posed last year with a giant $650,000 check for Florida International University’s Small Business Development Center, also from legislation she voted against? And remember when she was caught flat-out lying about taking credit for her no votes by CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede in what is now a viral clip. She actually said she couldn’t remember voting against key legislation that brought jobs and federal dollars to the district.
Maybe she’s not fit for office if she can’t remember how she votes. Or, worse, if she’s practicing some political sleight of hand.

On Nov. 5, 2021, she voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the bill that was supposed to finally fix our crumbling roads, bridges, public transit and even boost broadband.
On July 28, 2022, she voted against the CHIPS and Science Act, meant to make America competitive with China by funding tech hubs focused on energy and environmental issues.
And on Dec. 23, 2022, she voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the massive spending package that funded everything from disaster relief to aid for Ukraine — the very Ukraine Salazar claims to support against Putin.

But those party-line “no” votes didn’t stop the congresswoman from taking full credit when the money started flowing into her district anyway. Like magic, she suddenly became the madrina of millions she had literally tried to block. Most notoriously, she staged a little ceremony at Florida International University, where she was photographed grinning and holding a giant fake $650,000 check — signed by herself — for FIU’s Small Business Development Center.
A photo-op as shameless as it gets.
Let’s call it the Salazar shuffle: Vote against it in D.C., pose with it in Miami.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
What has she done? Not much. Right now, she’s pushing the Dignity Act, which gives only some immigrants a sorta undignified path to stay in the country as long as they work some menial jobs and keep paying for special licenses to do so.
But hey, maybe she’s just hoping that some giant checks and a few photo ops will distract voters from the fact that she’s one of the most inútiles politicians to ever represent District 27.
Cutler Bay deserves better. Miami deserves better.
Y Ladra’s going to keep calling it out. Because around here, we do pay attention.
The post María Elvira Salazar strikes again, takes credit for money she voted against appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Congressional candidate Richard Lamondin must be feeling pretty good this week. His campaign’s first community town hall was drew a nice crowd Tuesday night at St. James Baptist Church in Coconut Grove. That already puts him ahead of Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who hasn’t faced her constituents without a teleprompter or studio lighting in, well, ever.
The Miami-born entrepreneur and first-time candidate, a Democrat running to replace Republican Salazar, actually sat in front of real, live people — no Fox filter, no pre-recorded video, no carefully cropped backdrop of Little Havana cafecitos. Just him, a microphone, and a group of voters who have been waiting five years for their congresswoman to stop hiding behind a camera.
Read related: Democrat candidate Richard Lamondin steps up for absent Maria Elvira Salazar
Lamondin took questions from an audience of about 50 people on everything from housing costs to health care to small business survival, answering directly from the pews where voters packed in. It was the kind of event people in District 27 haven’t seen from their actual congresswoman in her five years of duck-and-cover representation.
“I would not be here if we had proper leadership,” Lamondin told the group. “We are a time right now where we have a congresswoman, Maria Elvira Salazar, who is viewed as elitist, because she is. She does not come into the community.
“She is viewed as out of touch, because she is. She only speaks to us through a camera,” Lamondin continued. “And when I knock on doors she is viewed as scared, because she is. She is scared of looking us in the eye and explaining to us, why some of us do not have healthcare… why, during hurricane season, she is supporting cuts to FEMA and to the flood mitigation that will lower our property insurance.
“She is afraid to look us in the eye and explain, especially to our seniors, why there are cuts to food assistance, housing assistance, the type of lifelines that this community needs… to pay the tax cuts for billionaires who don’t need the money.”
He also mentioned the cruel immigration policies that Salazar has supported with her silence — the ripping apart of families, sending teenagers into ill-prepared detention centers. “This is not the country I want my son to grow up in,” Lamondin said.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
The candidate told the crowd what they wanted to hear: that he’ll show up, that he’ll listen, and that he won’t disappear when the community needs him. But the biggest applause line wasn’t his. It came when someone pointed out the empty chair that would have been Salazar’s if she ever bothered to come.
In fact, dozens of attendees filled out question cards addressed to their absent congresswoman. Lamondin says he will personally take them to Salazar’s Miami office himself. Ladra can already see the campaign video.
Of course, this isn’t just about the Q&A. It’s about optics. And the optics were clear: Lamondin looked like the candidate who actually wants the job, while Salazar looked like she couldn’t be bothered. He looked like someone running toward the community, while Salazar continues to run away from it. And the optics of a packed Grove church versus a green screen studio are not good for a so-called “voice of the district.”
That could be a problem for the incumbent, especially since the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already put her on their target list. While Salazar enjoys incumbency in a GOP stronghold district that has about 30,000 more Republican voters than Democrats, her constant taking credit for things she didn’t do and the lack of spine on the immigration policy issue in a community full of immigrants, has made her increasingly unpopular within her own base.
Salazar beat former Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller last year by more than 20 points. But she won’t have Donald Trump’s coattails in 2026.
The Grove church crowd wasn’t just polite applause, either. They were fired up, laughing at the empty chair where Salazar would have sat if she had the guts. And if Lamondin can keep filling rooms like this, María Elvira may have to start doing more than reading carefully-crafted scripts in her journalist voice and recording dramatic kitchen-table monologues for Twitter.
Because the one thing voters in Miami hate more than corruption is being ignored.

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Looks like Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar is still allergic to her own constituents. Like other Republican lawmakers across the country who keep ducking the angry mobs that want to roast them over tariffs and immigration, Miami’s own absentee rep is no different.
Enter Richard Lamondin. Never heard of him? You’re not alone. He’s a Miami-born entrepreneur, an environmental guy with no political résumé, but plenty of chutzpah. And tomorrow night he’s stepping onto the stage Salazar won’t touch: an actual town hall.
That’s right. While La Elvira hides behind press releases and Fox News hits, this newbie is inviting people to St. James Baptist Church in Coconut Grove to talk about real issues — healthcare, housing, small business survival, immigration, all the stuff people have been wanting to scream at Salazar about but never get the chance because she won’t face them.
Lamondin’s pitch is simple: The difference in leadership has never been more clear. Salazar won’t show up. I will.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
There could be another Democrat biting at the chance to face Salazar heading into an August primary with Lamondin. Robin Peguero, a former prosecutor who was a lawyer for the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot who lives in Coral Gables and teaches at St. Thomas University’s College of Law. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who lost a primary to Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Báez-Geller — who decided to try for Florida House District 106 against Rep. Fabián Basabe instead (more on that later) — withdrew from the race last month, three months after he announced, and endorsed Peguero.
“We need someone who understands the legal process inside and out, who comes from an immigrant family, who converses with ease in a district where people speak to you first in Spanish, then English,” Davey said. Peguero’s father is from the Dominican Republic and his mother is from Ecuador.
Now, are either of these political newbies ready for Congress? Who knows?
Salazar, a Cuban American, is one of three Republican congressional incumbents in Florida being targeted this cycle by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The other two are Cory Mills (District 7, Deltona) and Anna Paulina Luna (District 13, Seminole). But this is familiar territory for Salazar, who faced nationally-backed opponents each year since she beat Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala in 2020. Despite that, Salazar won re-election last year with more than 60% of the vote.
Lamondin’s green — and not just in the eco-business sense. But one thing’s certain: if he keeps showing up where Salazar won’t, voters are going to notice.
Read related: Internal poll has Richard Lamondin in striking distance vs Maria Elvira Salazar
And he already has lined up some key people to help him amplify his message, aside from uber political consultant Christian Ulvert, who is handling his campaign. Lamondin will be joined Tuesday by representatives from the ACLU of Florida, a group of pastors, and dozens of Miami residents who are tired of watching their congresswoman disappear when it’s getting hot in here.
The town hall is from 7 to 830 p.m. Tuesday at St. James Baptist Church, 3500 Charles Ave.
So maybe Lamondin isn’t just some political rookie tilting at windmills. Maybe he’s found Salazar’s weak spot: She can’t take the tough questions from the people she supposedly represents.
And if María Elvira Salazar won’t show up for her constituents, why should her constituents show up for her next November?

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Dignity? In this bill? Don’t buy the branding
Isn’t it a little adorable when members of Congress dress up immigration bills like they’re offering you a free spa day instead of a seven-year parole sentence with no chance of freedom?
Actually, no. It’s sickening.
Under fire for having absolutely no spine when it comes to Donald Trump‘s  mass deportation fiesta in the U.S., Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar — a former TV host moonlighting as a lawmaker — is touting the “Dignity Act of 2025” like she’s Mother Theresa of the Migrants.
But she’s actually more like Maleficent.
According to Salazar and Democrat Congresswoman Veronica Escobar from Texas — who doesn’t realize she is being used — this “bipartisan breakthrough” would let some undocumented immigrants, only those who’ve been here since before 2021, apply for a shiny new seven-year temporary legal status. There’s no path to citizenship, no access to federal benefits, no skipping the long line of check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Oh, and the lucky immigrants get to pay restitution, too. Because clearly, working for years under the table in a field or kitchen or paying social security taxes for benefits they’re never going to get isn’t sacrificing enough.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
“If you’ve been here more than five years and you do not have a criminal record, and you have been working and paying taxes, in construction, hospitality, agriculture, slaugter houses, uh, fisheries, dairies, you can come out of the shadows, and pay $7,000 over seven years plus one percent of your earnings for seven years. You can go home for Christmas or bury your mother, and you can come out and buy homes and continue contributing to the economy, paying taxes and working in those jobs that other Americans don’t want to participate in,” Salazar said on CBS News earlier this month.
Isn’t that generous?
She said it would be a special, separate “dignity status,” not a green card. “There’s no path to citizenship for seven years. And if you want to renew it for another seven, perfect!”
Perfect!
Let’s call this what it is — probation with a W-2. A legislative fig leaf trying to (1) cover up the chaos caused by masked ICE agents raiding workplaces and (2) tamp down the protests that have been sprouting up all across the U.S.
But you immigrants shouldn’t get too comfortable. While you’re paying taxes and contributing to the economy like a model guest at a dinner party you’re never invited to join, the bill also calls for a nationwide E-Verify mandate, just to make sure you never forget you’re being watched.
And, of course, there’s beefed-up border security, because the best way to get GOP support for the bill is to throw more money at the wall (figurative or literal). Salazar says, quickly and as often as she can, that this is not amnesty, because that’s a dirty word for Republicans, and touts the bill as the first “common sense” solution in decades.
“For 40 years, every president and Congress has looked the other way while millions have lived here illegally, many working in key industries that keep our economy running. It’s the Achilles’ heel no one wants to fix,” Salazar said in a statement. “The Dignity Act offers a commonsense solution: Certain undocumented immigrants can earn legal status — not citizenship — by working, paying taxes, and contributing to our country.
“No handouts. No shortcuts. Just accountability and a path to stability for our economy and our future.”
Handouts? Shortcuts? Ladra would argue that working your fingers to the bone in agriculture and food service for decades without papers or protection, paying federal taxes without getting benefits, and constantly looking over your shoulder scared you’re going to be ripped from your home is about the opposite of a shortcut.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
Salazar didn’t come up with this on her own and out of the goodness of her heart. She is taking a cue from her false God, Donald Trump, who popped up on Fox News last month to tease his own “sort of” plan for “temporary passes” — but only for agricultural, hotel and restaurant workers, because nobody else wants to pick our fruits and veggies or wash our dirty dishes. And while he’s still leading the charge to deport as many people as possible, he doesn’t want anyone messing with the production of U.S. tomatoes, because, ketchup.
Or cheap labor.
“We’re going to let the farmer sort of be in charge,” he said. So, feudalism is making a comeback? Or is it more like slavery?
Ladra is sort of surprised that Salazar, hasn’t proposed that the immigrants who are already in detention can work the fields. Hey, maybe the government can issue branded ankle monitors and call them “Freedom Bands.”
Meanwhile, ICE continues to raid facilities like it’s Black Friday at a big box store — the most recent example being two ag centers in Southern California where over 200 workers were arrested. Recent raids in Florida have targeted construction and landscaping businesses, resulting in the detention of more than 100 individuals at a Tallahassee worksite alone. At least six people detained at Alligator Alcatraz — the cruel and unusual punishment facility where detainees have report maggots in their food and being left out in the sun for six hours — have been rushed to a nearby hospital for medical care (more on that later).
All of this has prompted lawsuits, protests and violent clashes.
And so much dignity.
Actually, Salazar wouldn’t know dignity if it was lucky enough to slap her in the face. This is the same woman who toured Alligator Alcatraz and said it was just great. She sat on the beds and they were really soft! Everybody there said they were just chillin’, she told the press after her chaperone visit.
“They had three metal toilets with a little wall to cover people when they’re doing their business. They had two telephones where they can call their attorneys or loved ones… [and] some grass where they could run or do some exercise,” she told the media after her tour earlier this month. “It meets the highest standards.”
Three metal toilets with a little wall just scream high standard and oh-so-much dignity. At least she didn’t say what Gov. Ron DeSantis said — that these conditions are better than what the detainees have at home. Es un ignorante.
Meanwhile, Democrat lawmakers who visited the makehift plastic prison in the Everglades said that detainees begged them to be let out of this nightmare. One man shouted that he was an American citizen. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the facility an “internment camp” and said “apalling” conditions inside were completely inhumane.
“They are essentially packed into cages,” Wasserman Schultz said of the detainees. “These are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut down.”
This can’t just be a partisan disconnect. Who’s lying?
Ladra’s money is on Salazar, who lied about keeping TPS protection for Venezuelans when it was really a California judge who did that. And she just keeps digging a deeper hole, making herself more vulnerable for next year’s midterms.
Read related: Internal poll has Richard Lamondin in striking distance vs Maria Elvira Salazar
Richard Lamondin, a environmental tech entrepreneur who has filed to run to replace the congresswoman, said her proposal is more political theater than it is true reform. “Just more broken promises for families who have lived, worked, and contributed to our communities for decades,” he called it.
“And while my opponent blames immigrants, it’s Washington’s failure to tackle inflation and bad policies like tariffs that are hurting our economy,” Lamondin said in a statement. “As a business-owner, I’ve seen it firsthand: tariff-driven price hikes have disrupted supply chains and made key products harder to find — with constant uncertainty making it harder for businesses to grow, plan, and hire.
“We need comprehensive immigration reform that honors our values, strengthens our economy, and includes a real path to citizenship. And we need leaders who understand the stakes and deliver results – not more political stunts that trade dignity for headlines,” Lamondin said, adding that she has introduced this same legislation twice before and each time failed to even get the bill out of committee.
So, while Salazar and Escobar slap a bipartisan bow on their undignified, halfway house of a proposal, vamos a hablar claro: This isn’t a path forward — it’s a temporary hall pass for people to keep doing the dirty work no one else wants to do, while pretending they’re not in legal limbo.
Ladra knows a PR campaign when she sees one. And calling this a “Dignity Act” is like calling a cage at Alligator Alcatraz a “tiny home.”
Maybe next time, Salazar should try honesty and real dignity instead of branding.
The post Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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An internal poll shows that Richard Lamondin, one of the Democrats hoping to challenge Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in District 27, is “within striking distance,” which is closer than one might expect for a newbie with no name recognition. The numbers indicate Lamondin is trailing the incumbent by just three points, which is within the margin of error.
This is good news for his campaign because (1) voters still don’t know who this guy is, (2) the election is almost 18 months away, which is plenty of time to introduce him to them, and (3) a closer look shows the results could be more an indication of how disliked Salazar is, as her unfavorable ratings seem to grow.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar may already have a 2026 opponent in Richard Lamondin
And only a little more than 10% were undecided. Again, 18 months out!

Lamondin is a first-time candidate and environmental entrepreneur whose company boasts saving more than 10 billion gallons of water and preventing over 300,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. He is one of two Democrats running for the chance to challenge Salazar next year. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey — who lost in last year’s primary against former School Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller — announced he would try again earlier this month. Salazar beat Baez-Geller by more than 20 points, but she was riding Trump’s coattails, which won’t be picking up hitchhikers in 2026.
Read related: Democrat Mike Davey aims to try again for congressional seat in District 27
Furthermore, the poll shows that voters, like those nationwide, are increasingly disapproving of President Donald Trump. A majority of the respondents believe that Congress is doing “poor to very poor” in addressing affordability and quality of life and nearly 50% strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy. Only a third gave him high marks for that.

Salazar has come under fire recently for her silence and complicity as Trump rolls out his mass detentions and deportations of illegal immigrants, many of whom live in our community, or her district. She was blasted for taking credit when a federal judge stopped the removal of temporary protective status of 350,000 Venezuelan nationals, something her president’s administration appealed. ¡Que cínica! (The Supreme Court on Monday let the Trump Administration go ahead and remove TPS.)
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has put Salazar in the list of vulnerable Republicans and have targeted her in Florida, along with Congress members Cory Mills (CD07 in New Smyrna Beach) and Anna Paulina Luna (CD13 in St. Petersburg).
District 27 covers parts of Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
It may seem a bit early for polls about next November’s congressional races, but political consultant Christian Ulvert might be underwhelmed with nothing much to do these days. So he commissioned this poll in mid April. His buddy Michael Worley, at MDW Communications, sampled 555 voters from across District 27 over four days, April 9th to the 12th. The demographic breakdown was 63% Hispanic, 30% White, 2% Black/Caribbean, and 5% other. And 33% of the respondents identified as Democrats, 41% as Republicans and 26% as no party affiliation or NPAs.
“This data affirms what we are hearing on the ground: voters are fed up with the status quo and ready for a change,” Ulvert said in a statement. “Richard Lamondin’s message of economic fairness, green job creation, and common-sense leadership is resonating. With national momentum building and local frustration deepening, FL-27 is firmly in play.”
Ulvert and his team are also encouraged by other flips across the country, including in Florida, where Dems in Escambia County recently beat Republican candidates by over 20 points. The special elections last month in Florida’s 1st and 6th congressional districts were won by Republicans but by vastly smaller margins than Trump won in November.
And because Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — Ulvert’s highest profile client right now — could run for governor in 2026, the poll also shows her favorability as super high, with almost 57% approving her job as mayor and less than 20% having strong disapproval. That’s less than half of the 45% that have strong disapproval of both Trump and Elon Musk.
Only 45% for Musk? That’s the surest sign this poll could be flawed.
The post Internal poll has Richard Lamondin in striking distance vs Maria Elvira Salazar appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who lost the Democratic primary last year for a chance to challenge Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, wants to give it another go. He announced Tuesday that he would run again in 2026.
“I’ve spent over 12 years as a public servant and mayor working to improve the quality of life for the people I was elected to serve — putting politics aside, focusing on solutions, and delivering results,” Davey, 58, said in a statement. “That kind of approach is sorely needed in Washington these days.
“I’m running for Congress because we deserve a representative who will fight for us, listen to us, and always put people first.”
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
And likely because there’s momentum. Salazar is ripe for the taking. She has come under fire for her hypocritical statements and lack of integrity and action on the mass detentions and deportations that are scarring our community and have led to at least three deaths in immigration custody (more on that later). Her face graces billboards and digital ads calling her una lambona and a traitor to our community. She wrongfully took credit last month for the extension of temporary protective status for 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. whose TPS had been rescinded by President Trump. She didn’t do anything. It was a federal judge in San Francisco who reversed the Trump administration’s deportation orders for the TPS holders.
Plus, she won on a Trump pendulum sweep that won’t exist in 2026 and is already swinging the other way, as shown with special elections in the 1st and 6th Congressional Districts, which were both lost to Republicans but marked significant gains in GOP strongholds, according to Democrat operatives who hope these results show that they can flip the House in 2026.
It’s enough to make any would-be hopeful itch. Ladra is surprised that Luisa Baez-Geller, the former Miami-Dade School Board member who beat Davey in the primary last August (with 54% of the vote) but lost to Salazar in November (with less than 40% of the vote), hasn’t scratched yet.
But there is already another Democrat candidate. Richard Lamondin, 37, a Miami-native and environmental entrepreneur, who announced more than a month ago and filed paperwork last week. He is co-founder and CEO of ecofi, environmental services company dedicated to demonstrating that sustainability is beneficial for business, which he and his brother built from the ground up. The company boasts saving over 10 billion gallons of freshwater and preventing more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions while saving property owners $100 million in utility costs.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar may already have a 2026 opponent in Richard Lamondin
“Today, we have grown to be much more than just an energy and water conservation company. We are now the sustainability team for the real estate industry, supporting them in whatever they need on their journey,” Lamondin said in a Medium interview published last summer.
But his degree from the University of California is in International relations.
Lamondin has been recognized as Endeavor Miami’s Entrepreneur of the Year and named one of South Florida Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He serves on multiple nonprofit boards focused on community development and youth empowerment, including Project Transforming Hope, Engage Miami, and the ADAPT Foundation. His wife, Martina Spolini, is executive director of Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade, a non-profit that helps low-income, vulnerable homeowners, small business owners, and community organizations by providing critical home repair and accessibility modifications at no cost to preserve current affordable housing.
Davey was a Republican who ran for the Florida House as a GOP candidate in 2016 before switching parties in 2019, due to The Donald Effect. According to his website, his priorities many of the same issues he embraced last year — defending women’s reproductive rights, voters’ rights, working families, unions, equality, social security and Medicare and the environment while advocating for increased teacher pay, reduced lobbyist influence and fix the broken immigration system.
In his statement, he indicated that the recent extremism is also going to play a role in his campaign.
“Like many of you, I have watched as Washington has become increasingly paralyzed by a broken political system. A system where too many politicians, like my opponent, Maria Elvira Salazar, are more concerned with scoring cheap political points or serving special interests than delivering for the people they represent,” Davey said. 
“Washington isn’t working for the American people because too many politicians are putting their extreme partisanship and big corporate donors ahead of the people they’re supposed to represent. Maria Elvira Salazar is part of the problem,” he said. “She puts her extreme partisanship and her desire to serve Donald Trump ahead of the best interests of this district. Salazar is so controlled that she claims credit for funding she voted against and cannot even remember what she voted for or against.”
Ouch. That refers to an interview by Jim DeFede of CBS4 News where Salazar, now 63, was confronted about taking credit for millions in funding when she actually voted against two federal bills during the Joe Biden administration, including the bipartisan critical infrastructure bill that funded $2.5 million to expand healthcare for seniors and families, $8 million for flooding mitigation along the Miami River and in Little Havana and $3.75 million for police initiatives, among other projects.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar sends campaign mailers from congressional office
Davey is also going to hit on the “reckless tariffs” and disastrous immigration sweeps that have resulted in the deportation of legal U.S. residents and at least seven detainee deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He says it is personal for him, because his has-Peruvian daughter — his wife fled the country’s violent Shining Path terrorist attacks — asked why the president thought less of her.
“I am running for her, and for your children, so that they no longer have to fear their president,” Davey says.
“Under the Trump Administration and with Congresswoman Salazar’s help, we are witnessing a full-blown assault on the very values that define us as a nation. Families are torn apart by heartless deportations and law-abiding residents are swept up in a brutal and unjust system. These aren’t mere statistics; these are our neighbors and our friends,” Davey’s statement reads. “The Trump Administration is dangerously out of control and blatantly attempting to whitewash America. Skin color is not a reason to deport people. Every person in this country is entitled to due process. Simply put, we are watching history repeat itself.
“And who can forget the devastating impact of those utterly reckless tariffs? Tariffs that don’t punish foreign countries but instead punish American workers, farmers, and small businesses. Tariffs that choke the life out of our economy, cost us countless jobs, and make it even harder for working-class families to put food on the table. It’s economic sabotage, plain and simple.
“My opponent, Maria Elvira Salazar, has stood by and enabled this destructive agenda. She is nothing less than Donald Trump’s partner in this historic destruction of our nation,” Davey says. “She’s part of a Washington that’s out of touch, a Washington that puts partisanship over people, a Washington that has failed the very people it’s supposed to serve.
“I’m running for Congress because I believe we can do better. I believe that we deserve a representative who will fight for us, who will listen to us, and who will put our interests first. I will work hard for the people of this district.
“I believe in an America where everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare. I believe in an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. I believe in a nation that welcomes immigrants, that treats everyone with dignity and respect, and that lives up to its promise as a beacon of hope and opportunity.”
The post Democrat Mike Davey aims to try again for congressional seat in District 27 appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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