MIAMI — South Florida Democratic congressional candidate Eliott Rodriguez filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Miami-Dade’s elections supervisor, citing bias after he refused to recuse himself from the recount process. Incumbent Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar is also named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Alina García from serving as the determining member of the county canvassing board for the 27th Congressional District, where the results are razor-thin.
Salazar led Rodriguez by 1,103 votes or 0.44 percentage points Thursday night. Florida law requires an automatic recount when there is a margin of less than 0.5 points. The canvassing committee oversees the recount.
Rodriguez’s campaign demanded Thursday that García recuse himself from overseeing the recount.
The Rodriguez campaign alleged that the attorney representing Salazar in the recount, Robert Fernández, is García’s son-in-law and requested immediate confirmation, saying the relationship would raise additional serious concerns, according to the complaint.
The campaign also cited in the lawsuit an interview García gave to the Miami Herald on election night, stating, “Maria Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount” and that it was “possible but unlikely” that there would be enough ballots remaining to overturn the results.
She added that stories almost never end up going the other way. “Usually the trend we see is one that continues,” García was quoted as saying. In other words, if Salazar is ahead, it will likely stay that way.
The Miami Herald also reported that Oren Rosenthal, general counsel for the supervisor of elections, estimated he had seen about 20 recounts, and with the margin Salazar led Tuesday night, he said it was unlikely the result would be overturned.
In a press release, García said: “I want to reiterate that I was elected by the people to serve as Supervisor of Elections. Nothing disqualifies me from serving in these duties, including serving on the Canvassing Board. Therefore, as I previously stated, I have not recused myself and nor will I do so.”
Juan-Carlos Planas, general counsel for the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee, ran against García in the 2024 election race.
“If candidates recruit people close to the elections supervisor, we are setting a very dangerous precedent,” he said. “Can you imagine showing up to court and the litigants hiring people close to the judge? The judge would be removed from office.”
On Thursday evening, the day before the final ballots were counted and the results were certified, an attorney representing Rodriguez sent a letter to García demanding that she recuse herself from matters related to the race.
“This goes beyond all ethical standards. The canvassing committee is a quasi-judicial body and therefore sits as a quasi-judicial official,” Planas said. “This is a quasi-judicial body and so she should recuse herself as any other judge would.”
García, a Republican who served one term in the Florida State House of Representatives before winning election as supervisor of elections in 2024, posed for photos with other Republican leaders, including Salazar and President Donald Trump. She is the first elected supervisor of elections. It was previously a nonpartisan position appointed by the county mayor.
Few experts considered the race competitive this time around, but the district was down 14.26 points in favor of Democrats compared to the 2024 presidential election.
Salazar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“My opponent is behaving like an election denier, trying to turn this process into a political circus because he doesn’t like the outcome of the election,” Salazar said on X Thursday night.
Both Salazar and Rodriguez are Cuban-American and former journalists. Salazár won three consecutive terms representing the heavily Hispanic 27th Congressional District. She and Trump comfortably won the district in 2024.
Salazar had signs of trouble in September when she released an ad in which she broke with Trump on his immigration policies.
“Mr. President, some of your efforts on immigration have gone too far,” she said in the ad while standing outside the White House.
His district has been particularly hard hit by Trump’s tough immigration measures, including a record number of expulsions of Cubans. While Trump criticized Salazar after the ad, he ultimately supported her before Election Day.
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