Salazar’s opponent slams her in video after Florida interview debacle

MIAMI — Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s Democratic opponent attacked her in a video just days after the congresswoman couldn’t recall the House votes she cast during an interview with a South Florida TV station.

In a campaign video titled “Salazar Lied” released Thursday, Democrat Lucia Báez-Geller slammed the congresswoman for voting against an estimated $24 million in federal funding for her district — the topic of a contentious interview Salazar had with CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede earlier this week.

“What we see here in Miami-Dade County is that a lot of the advancements that are happening happened despite her and not because of her,” Báez-Geller, a school board member in Miami-Dade County, said of Salazar.

During the interview with DeFede, he challenged the congresswoman for having touted spending measures she opposed and pressed her to explain.

Salazar couldn’t recall her votes on the House bills and at one point she needed to ask her staff about them.

“Why don’t we look at the $40 million that I have brought to this community?” she asked after a back-and-forth. “Aren’t you proud of me?”

The funding Salazar highlighted and seemed to embrace — but in some cases voted against — came from several federal laws, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the 2023 Omnibus spending bill to fund the government as well as the CHIPS and Science Act to expand manufacturing and semiconductor research in the U.S.

The video from the Báez-Geller campaign lists a variety of projects the money funded in the district, including a mental health facility expansion, a community health center and a police department upgrade.

“We felt it very disrespectful and dishonest that she's trying to pull the wool over people's eyes,” Báez-Geller said. “And so we just actively came together to … make sure that her voters know that she's taking credit for projects that she voted against.”

The Salazar campaign brushed off the accusations in a statement provided to POLITICO. "Only in the minds of out-of-touch radical liberals is standing up to bad policies and wasteful spending viewed as a 'gotcha,'” the campaign said.

Eager to win back the U.S. House in November, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been attacking several incumbent Republicans for a pattern of what they're calling "vote no, take the dough."

Democrats have likewise lit the fire under Republicans when they do the opposite by turning down federal funding that could benefit their constituents.

Salazar has been in Congress since 2021 and previously worked for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. Her highly competitive district is nestled in Miami-Dade County and is heavily Hispanic. She has more than $800,000 cash on hand for her reelection bid — just under 10 times the amount in Báez-Geller’s campaign coffers, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

Gov. Ron DeSantis won the Miami-Dade County in 2022, becoming the first Republican to do so in more than two decades. But the county is a potential swing in the 2024 election because registered Democratic voters out-number Republicans in Miami-Dade County, by about 82,000.