Incumbent’s campaign says it’s not gonna happen
Eliott Rodriguez had barely finished celebrating his Democratic primary victory before he turned around and told Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who he faces in November, that he wants to go cara a cara on a live TV screen near you.
Not once. Not twice. Three times.
Rodriguez, the longtime CBS Miami anchor who retired last year and then defeated former prosecutor Robin Peguero last week to become the Democratic nominee for Congressional District 27, took only a few days to formally challenge Salazar to three televised debates in October — two in English and one entirely in Spanish.
Read related: Anchor vs. anchor: Eliott Rodriguez wins primary, takes on María Elvira
Rodriguez’s campaign proposed debates involving some of South Florida’s best-known political journalists and television stations: Jim DeFede at 
CBS Miami, Glenna Milberg at Local 10 and either Telemundo 51 or Univision 23 for the Spanish-language showdown. Team Eliott is ready to work with the Salazar campaign, the stations and journalists “to determine mutually agreeable dates, formats and rules,” reads a press release.
And Rodriguez wants an answer by Sept. 1.
Tick tock.
“For nearly 50 years as a journalist, I believed public officials had an obligation to answer tough questions,” Rodriguez said in announcing the challenge. “Now that I’m the Democratic nominee for Congress in District 27, that same standard applies to me.”
But Rodriguez isn’t merely asking for debates. He’s laying a trap.
If Salazar says yes, Rodriguez gets exactly what a challenger normally wants: several hours of free television exposure standing on equal footing with a three-term incumbent.
If she says no? The former journalist gets to spend the next two months asking why another former journalist is afraid of answering questions.
See how that works?
Rodriguez says the debates should focus on affordability, housing and property insurance, Social Security and Medicare, healthcare, immigration, 
public safety and the economy.
“The voters deserve more than campaign commercials, scripted talking points and attacks,” he said. “They deserve to hear directly from the two people asking to represent them — without scripts, without 30-second commercials and without anyone else speaking for us. Let’s stand side by side, answer the questions and let the voters make their own decision.”
So what are the chances María Elvira accepts any debate at all, let alone three? Pretty damn tiny.
Republican strategist Ana Carbonell, who is on the Salazar campaign, told Politico Cortadito that Maria Elvira no tiene razón to debate Eliott.
“She’s going to be taking her message to the voters,” Carbonell said in a short telephone chat. Ladra thinks she was taken by surprise. “She has a strong track record that she can take directly to the voters.
Rodriguez rebuffed requests to debate in the primary, Carbonell reminded us. “So I find it rich,” she said, that Rodriguez would now challenge the incumbent.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar uses socialist scare in rematch vs Donna Shalala
Salazar has debated before. When she was the challenger trying to knock Democratic Congresswoman Donna Shalala out of this very seat in 2020, Salazar participated in debates with Shalala on both CBS Miami and Univision. The Univision debate was entirely in Spanish and got plenty 
feisty, with Salazar hammering Shalala over socialism and accusing the incumbent of not being sufficiently present in the community.
But two years later, when Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo challenged Salazar, Taddeo repeatedly called for debates. Salazar refused.
When Local 10 confronted the congresswoman about it days before the 2022 election, Salazar’s explanation was basically that voters already knew the candidates. “People know what she stands for; people know what I stand for,” Salazar said.
Taddeo was not amused, calling the refusal an insult to constituents and pointing out — deliciously — that Salazar herself had spent years in journalism.
The Miami Herald later noted that Salazar and Taddeo went through the entire general election without debating because Salazar declined invitations.
And Salazar won anyway. Comfortably. So there wasn’t exactly a political lesson there telling her: Never do that again.
Which brings us to 2026.
This time the challenger is a little different. Rodriguez isn’t simply another politician demanding a debate. He spent almost five decades asking politicians questions for a living. Just like Salazar.
That’s what makes this potentially irresistible television. Eliott Rodriguez and María Elvira Salazar are both Cuban American. Both built careers in 
South Florida television news. Both are bilingual. Both know exactly what a camera does and exactly how to use one. It’s their natural habitat.
Neither gets to complain about hostile media. They are the media.
Or at least they were.
Rodriguez also has another reason to push hard for debates: he needs them more than Salazar does.
He won Tuesday’s Democratic primary over Peguero with about 53.5% of the vote and emerged as the candidate Democrats apparently believe gives them their best opportunity to make CD 27 competitive. Salazar, meanwhile, demolished her own Republican primary challenger with about 81%.
She’s the three-term incumbent. She’s sitting on millions in campaign cash. And she’s running in a district that has moved substantially toward Republicans since she first won it in 2020.
Rodriguez needs to change the equation. Three televised debates would give him three chances to do it.
Which is precisely why Salazar may decide she doesn’t need three televised debates. There is political risk for Salazar in saying yes. She gives Rodriguez free exposure, elevates him to equal footing and creates three opportunities for one bad answer, one viral clip or one immigration question that follows her around until Election Day.
There is also risk in saying no. Because Rodriguez can make the refusal part of his campaign. And the line practically writes itself: Two journalists are running for Congress. Only one is willing to answer questions.
Read related: Is Maria Elvira Salazar finally getting a real challenger in Eliott Rodriguez?
Expect some variation of that approximately six minutes after Sept. 1 and through Nov. 3. The job for the Rodriguez campaign is to make it so that refusing to debate him creates more political damage than just debating him.
And that also may depend on what the polls look like in September.
For now, Rodriguez has accomplished exactly what he wanted. Well, after winning the primary last week. That’s that he’s already trying to put María Elvira on defense.
Not about Trump. Or immigration. Not about Social Security. Not even the cost of living.
About whether she’ll simply show up.
The audience is there for it.
The congresswoman? Not so much.
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Eliott Rodriguez dares Maria Elvira Salazar to 3 TV debates; one en español added by Ladra on
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