Television journalist Maria Elvira Salazar announced Thursday on twitter and YouTube that she wants a rematch with Congresswoman Donna Shalala, who beat her last November to replace longtime U.S. Rep. Ileana 
Ros-Lehtinen, who retired more than three decades in office.
Salazar lost to Shalala by 6 points, 52 to 46%, and apparently thinks she can make up the difference by using local fear of communist regimes and the demonization of all Democrats as socialists. Of course, the Dems aren’t helping with progressive darlings like New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Suarez and her good ideas gone bad confusing young, ideological people.
There is actually footage of big, bad, scary AOC in the Florida District 27 ad.
“While some members of her party peddle the same radical, socialist agenda that has ruined the 
countries from which many of us escaped, Shalala remains disturbingly silent,” Salazar says in the 3-minute video after she does a short history of her life. “Silence in the face of oppression is complicity.
“We must not be silent. We must not remain on the sidelines while many on the left want to implement in this country the failed socialist systems that brought misery, oppression and exile to many of our countries.
“I will not be invisible, I will not remain on the sidelines, and I will not be silent,” Salazar says at the end. “I will fight to preserve and protect the freedom for which my parents were willing to give up everything.”
It’s clear Salazar will try to cast Shalala as a left wing nutcase enabler of “corrupt, banana-republic dictators” — even anti-Semitic — which is ridiculous. With her anti-environmental history and battle with labor unions, the former private university president is practically Republican.
Read related: Donna Shalala is snubbed, missing on Obama’s FL endorsements list
Does that kind of “communista!” campaign still work in Miami? In 2020? It didn’t work in 2018 for Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the county commission race or in 2017 for former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz in the Senate race against Annette Taddeo.
Then again, there are about 280,000 Cubans in the district — and Cubans are high performing voters.
That is likely why Salazar is casting herself as a fierce anti-communist with the credentials to act on our best 
interests in hemispheric affairs, even though the video also includes footage of Cuban exiles coming here and language that seems she is not in line with Donald Trump‘s immigration policy.
“Coming to terms with leaving behind everything you have worked for your entire life and starting anew with $5 in your pocket is not a big price to pay when freedom is at stake. This is a story of many exiles, including my Cuban parents who came to this great country empty handed 60 years ago,” she says.
“I grew up hearing about the horrors and injustices of the socialist Castro regime, which instilled in me a deep faith in and a desire to pursue the American dream,” Salazar said.
Read related: Dumb Dems invite pro-Cuba pols to stump for them in Miami-Dade
“My career as a journalist has taken me all over the world, in particular Latin America. I have confronted dictators with questions they did not want to hear, and much less, wanted to answer.”
Well, yes, and no. There was that one interview she scored with Fidel Castro 
where Salazar totally gushed like a flirting teenager with the tyrant. She referred to hi as “comandante” and “un revolucionario por excelencia,” which translates to a revolutionary par excellence.” Like, really? Salazar later said she was caught off guard when he complimented her legs. Ugh. Really? Someone tried to make an issue out of it in the primary, but she won
Then, in 2016, she applauded Barrack Obama‘s opening with Cuba, calling it the right thing to do.
Still, she says her experience covering war and struggle in Central and South America and the classes she 
took at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has made her a good choice for Congress.
“Today, I can speak with authority about the problems and solutions for Cuba, for Venezuela and Central America,” Salazar said.
So can almost any Cuban in Miami.
Read related: Donna Shalala scrambles for Hispanic votes, credibility
Salazar will have to start fundraising right away, as Shalala has already amassed almost $600,000 for her reelection, which is not guaranteed. While she won by six points, Shalala is not widely beloved. Former Sen. Bill Nelson — who lost his race against former Gov. Rick Scott — won the same District 27 by 12 points, for example, and the Dems failed gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum, also won the district by double digits.
And her campaign has already made a big faux pas: Salazar’s name was spelled wrong on the website address on the video screen. Her name. Someone is getting fired already.
Then, a sharp member of Team Shalala bought that domain — www.mariaelvriasalazar.com (see? the r and the a are transposed) — and put the Congresswoman’s site on there.
Maria Elvira Salazar uses socialist scare in rematch vs Donna Shalala added by Ladra on
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Manuel E.,
I agree but the older Cubans are a voting machine which IMO is to be respected . Something the other Hispanic groups have zero concept of ..
I do not agree who they vote for not due to political party but because they vote for self serving , con artists who have never lifted a finger for them .
I see only a self defeating sense of ethnic pride . They confuse these crooks with their own families .
Being Cuban myself , born in Cuba I guess I am also an extremist as far as my priority when I vote is anyone who is NOT Cuban.
I feel I am only voting against my own interest for another ” Cuban Costa Nostra ” politico when I vote Cuban but again other Hispanic ” tribes” are for the most part politically apathetic .
Get real people Zalazar is a Republican shill. Who has no clue the ground under her (MDC) is so blue. She could only wish it was purple
The Anti-Castro machine alive and well in Miami Dade County. Salazar is supported by Ross-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Ballard brothers. All of them made a political living for three decades by talking the tough talk on Castro instead of concerning themselves with working for the benefit of their districts. Yet, behind the scenes making friends with China owned firms and others like Odebrecht which was pretty cozy with Cuba and other communist regimes. All about the money and hypocrisy. As old Cubans used to say “the same dog with a different collar”.
Salazar is a journalist–with ZERO experience in government! Shalala has given a lifetime of excellent service and is the ONLY experienced candidate to consider!
Sorry I Don’t Trust Neither One ? Who else is for This District ?
Shalala is hated for secretly giving away the Pine Rocklands so a Walmart developer could promptly kill every tree and every blade of grass on the former protected site. Many environmentalists will NEVER forgive Shalala. Many UM alumni hate her. Maybe Shalala’s $600,000 war chest comes from Walmart developers and their employees?
…with her experience, this girl who has worn ” Carolina Herrera’s ” originals, could choose to try out the patio chair, before the Congressional seat, and stay ” ahead of the curve”.
The other, more telling, mistake the campaign made was filing Maria Elvira to run for District 26. Or was it a mistake?
Methinks you’ll see Salazar use big, bad Shalala to raise some serious bank from out-of-state Republicans, who still see red anytime Donna’s Clinton Foundation ties get brought up.
Then, war chest in hand and having avoided most of what is likely to be a bloody GOP primary, she can parachute into CD26 and challenge the South Florida freshman Congresswoman in an actual purple district. The purple district that shares the same media market with CD27, btw, meaning voters there will know her already.
Shalala is indestructible.
She underperformed the rest of the Dems last year, but CD27 gets bluer and bluer every year and will be MUCH bluer against Trump. She would have to underperform the Dems at the top of the ticket in 2020 by like 15, maybe even 20 points, to lose. Virtually impossible.