Maria Elvira Salazar

Maria Elvira Salazar is an American journalist and broadcast television presenter who worked for the Spanish-language network Telemundo for three decades after serving as a news anchor for Miami-based Mega TV. She has also worked for CNN Español and Univision.^[1] She is the Republican Party nominee in 2018's U.S. House election in Florida's 27th congressional district.^[2]

Early life and education

Elvira was born in Miami in 1962, the daughter of Cuban immigrants. She grew up bilingual. She spent part of her childhood in Puerto Rico. She received a B.A. in Communications from the University of Miami and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[3]

Career

Salazar has served as Senior Political Correspondent for Telemundo and as Central American Bureau Chief and White House and Pentagon Correspondent for Univision. She has also worked as a news anchor for Mega TV and hosted a political news show called Maria Elvira Live.^[4]

She began working as a television correspondent in 1984 as an employee of Mega TV, for which she hosted a one-hour daily news and discussion program.^[5]

Salazar spent three decades working at Telemundo. In 1995, she interviewed Fidel Castro for Telemundo at the Cuban mission to the UN. She is said to have been the only U.S. Spanish-language television journalist to interview Castro one-on-one.^[6][7][8]

Salazar has said that “her second biggest get of her television career was an on-camera interview with right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet,” which she has cited as an example of “her journalistic independence and tenacity.”^[9]

On October 24, 2014, Venezuela's Ministry of Communication and Information accused Salazar of having twice “incited the assassination of Hugo Chávez” on her TV program María Elvira Live. Under the headline “Maria Elvira: U.S. TV trash,” the ministry accused her of libel and of having CIA ties.^[10]

On December 5, 2017, the Miami Herald reported that Salazar would be “going solo” after three decades at Univision. She said she planned to pursue independent journalism.^[11]

As of mid 2018, she was working as the anchor of Mega TV’s nightly newscast.^[12]

2018 House race

The Miami Herald reported in January 2018 that retiring Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who had represented the 27th congressional district since 1989, had met with Salazar. Ros-Lehtinen said that her district was “totally winnable for the right candidate” from the Republican Party, adding that Salazar “could be the right candidate.”^[13] In March, Salazar announced her candidacy to represent the district, which includes Miami Beach, most of Miami, Kendall, and parts of coastal south Dade County. Salazar described herself as a “common-sense Republican” and said she didn't think it would be hard for her to win in November.^[14] During the primary campaign, Salazar's Republican opponent criticized her for a 1995 interview she conducted with Fidel Castro. In the interview she referred to the Cuban dictator as a "comandante" and "un revolucionario por excelencia". Her opponents said she had ingratiated herself with Castro. Salazar said that the snippets from the interview used in an ad by one of her opponents were edited dishonestly.^[15][16]

On August 28, 2018, Salazar won the Republican primary by a margin of about 15 points over the second-place candidate. On the night of the primary, Ros-Lehtinen praised Salazar. On the same day, former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala won the Democratic nomination for Ros-Lehtinen's seat.^[16]

Honors and awards

She is the recipient of five Emmy Awards.^[17]

Bibliography

• Salazar, María Elvira (2010). Si Dios contigo, ¿quién contra ti?. Grijalbo. ISBN 0307393267.

References

External links

• Campaign website