Trump Withdraws Support for Rep. Salazar Over Immigration Ad
A sitting president publicly breaking with a member of his own party in a competitive House district creates measurable electoral uncertainty six weeks before midterms.
President Donald Trump withdrew his support Saturday for Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) after she released a campaign advertisement arguing that his administration's immigration enforcement had "gone too far," according to reporting by the Washington Examiner.
Salazar represents Florida's 27th Congressional District, a Miami-area seat that the Cook Political Report has tracked as competitive in the 2026 midterm cycle. The race tightened this week, according to the Washington Examiner report, before Trump's public withdrawal of support added a new variable to an already contested contest.
The advertisement was recorded outside the White House. In it, Salazar stated that enforcement of immigration law under the Trump administration had "gone too far" and that Hispanic voters who helped elect Trump had concerns about the administration's approach. The specific claims made in the advertisement beyond those characterizations were not detailed in the available source material.
Trump had initially retained his support for Salazar after the advertisement was released earlier in September, according to the Washington Examiner. His reversal came Saturday, September 27, 2026. The mechanism or statement through which Trump communicated the withdrawal of support was not specified in the available source material. What public record or platform post would confirm the precise wording of Trump's statement remains to be identified.
Salazar was first elected to FL-27 in 2020, defeating incumbent Democrat Donna Shalala. She was reelected in 2022. FL-27 covers portions of Miami-Dade County and has historically been a competitive district. Her 2022 FEC filing details her fundraising and expenditure totals for that cycle, though her 2026 cycle filings at FEC.gov would reflect current financial standing and have not been incorporated into this report pending review.
The immigration enforcement posture Salazar referenced in her advertisement relates to a broader set of administration policies enacted since January 2025. Congressional records show that Salazar has at various points supported and at other points raised concerns about elements of immigration legislation, though a full vote-by-vote accounting of her positions on specific immigration measures would require a review of the congressional record at congress.gov.
The political dynamics at play reflect a tension that has appeared in other Republican-held districts with large Hispanic constituencies. Miami-Dade County shifted toward Trump in both 2020 and 2024, according to certified Florida election results, but the degree to which that shift insulates or complicates incumbents who deviate from administration positions is a question that district-level polling, not yet cited in available public records, would need to answer.
For comparison, the Cook Political Report's current forecast for the House, covered previously by The Congressional Times in Cook Political Report Forecasts Republican House Loss in November Midterms, places the Republican majority under pressure in the 2026 cycle. How FL-27 fits into that broader forecast is not specified in the Cook data available at time of publication.
Whether the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County or any Florida Republican Party committee has taken a formal position on the Salazar advertisement or on Trump's withdrawal of support is not established in the available source material. A formal committee resolution or public statement from the state party would be the document that would clarify that question.
What remains unknown includes the exact statement or post through which Trump communicated his withdrawal of support, whether any formal party committee action has followed, and what Salazar's current FEC cash-on-hand figure is relative to her Democratic opponent for 2026. Her most recent FEC quarterly filing, available at FEC.gov under committee ID H0FL27086, would answer the financial question.