Rep. María Elvira Salazar, a Republican representing Florida’s 27th Congressional District, directly addressed President Donald Trump in a new campaign advertisement, telling him that “some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.” The ad marks a public disagreement between Salazar and Trump as she seeks another term representing her heavily Hispanic South Florida district.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the 30-second advertisement. She argues that some Hispanic voters feel betrayed by the administration’s immigration policies, focusing her criticism on enforcement tactics rather than broadly rejecting Trump’s entire immigration agenda.

"The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today," she said.

Hispanic voters account for roughly fifteen percent of eligible voters in the United States. Trump made historic gains for the GOP with Hispanic voters in his 2024 election, outperforming his prior electoral showings and previous Republican nominees by multiple points. Pew Research Center found that Trump received 48 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2024, widely surpassing the previous Republican high of 40 percent in George W. Bush’s 2004 victory. Many exit polls and surveys also stated that Trump won a plurality with Hispanic men.

Trump’s achievement in 2024 was the best modern Republican performance among Latinos voters.

Salazar has represented Florida’s 27th District since 2021 and serves as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. Before entering Congress, she spent decades as a Spanish-language television journalist, including work with Telemundo, Univision and CNN en Español. She is also the daughter of Cuban exiles and has made Cuba, Venezuela and other Latin American issues central to her congressional work.

Immigration has been a major part of Salazar’s congressional record. She has backed stronger border-security measures while also promoting the bipartisan DIGNITY Act, which would increase border enforcement while creating legal status for certain immigrants already in the country. In July, she also supported legislation providing potential legal status for eligible Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status recipients.

Trump has endorsed Salazar for reelection to the House, making her criticism notable as she campaigns for another term. Salazar won reelection in 2024 and is seeking to retain the Miami-area seat in the November 3 general election against Democrat nominee Eliott Rodriguez. The new rhetoric from Salazar follows an internal poll from the Rodriguez campaign that found the two in a dead heat in their race for the usually safely red seat. The poll, from Bendixen & Amandi International, surveyed 600 likely voters in the congressional race's general election from August 25-30. The margin of error was 4 percent.

The same poll also found that Trump's approval with voters in the district was only 44 percent, compared to his 54 percent disapproval rating within the district. These numbers may give insight into Salazar's reasoning for the public break with Trump ahead of her contested November race.

As previously noted, the poll and its numbers are campaign-sponsored and should be viewed cautiously. Salazar still holds a dominating lead in fundraising and won the seat by more than 20 points in 2024 and by nearly 15 points in 2022.

Nevertheless, the new advertisement puts Salazar's disagreement with the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement directly before voters. The question becomes whether a candidate that continues to identify herself as a Trump-endorsed Republican will keep her seat in a district that may not view the president's endorsement as favorable as it once did.