Abelardo de la Espriella Endorses Maria Elvira Salazar for US Midterms

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has officially inserted himself into the U.S. political landscape by publicly endorsing Republican congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar. Salazar is seeking a fourth term representing Florida’s 27th District, a crucial area where over 38,000 Colombians reside, making up 5% of the local electorate.

De la Espriella, who has steadily aligned his administration with the geopolitical strategies of U.S. President Donald Trump, described Salazar as “the best friend of Colombia in the United States Congress.”

The endorsement highlights a long-standing personal and political relationship. De la Espriella, who lived in Miami for nearly a decade and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2023, previously donated to Salazar’s campaigns in 2018 and 2022, contributing more than US$25,000.

His wife, Ana Lucia Pineda, has also contributed US$66,500 to the Florida congresswoman over the years. In return, Salazar traveled to Barranquilla in June to support De la Espriella during the second round of Colombia’s presidential election.

De la Espriella endorsed Salazar, whose race is close

This foreign backing arrives at a critical juncture for Salazar, who is locked in a statistical tie with Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez. A September poll conducted by Tulchin Research showed Salazar with 47% of the vote compared to Rodríguez’s 46%. This razor-thin margin contrasts sharply with her previous victory four years ago, when she won the district by over 20 percentage points.

Salazar’s campaign has faced headwinds following her recent public friction with President Trump. The congresswoman criticized the administration’s aggressive immigration operations, which saw a record 50,925 detentions by ICE in August, stating the policies had gone “too far.” In response, Trump shared posts on his Truth Social platform labeling Salazar a “traitor” and calling for her to be replaced.

Despite the tension with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, Salazar has garnered support from other prominent international figures. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado recently released a video endorsing the congresswoman, praising her as a “firm and loyal ally to the cause of the freedom of Venezuela”.

The endorsement sparked debate among U.S. political analysts, with some warning that Machado’s intervention could alienate Democratic lawmakers who have historically supported the Venezuelan democratic cause.

Echoes of the 2020 diplomatic crisis

De la Espriella’s decision to openly intervene in an American election reopens historical debates regarding Colombia’s foreign policy and nonintervention principles. The endorsement echoes a major diplomatic crisis during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, when high-ranking Colombian officials heavily backed Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

During the administration of President Ivan Duque, Colombia’s ambassador to Washington, Francisco Santos, alongside conservative members of Congress from the Centro Democratico party, actively campaigned for Trump in Florida. They urged Colombian-American voters to back the Republican ticket while promoting aggressive messaging that labeled Democratic candidate Joe Biden as a socialist.

That interference severely strained Bogota’s historically bipartisan relationship with Washington. Following Biden’s election, the new administration virtually froze top-level diplomatic contact with the Duque government for months.

U.S. Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg explicitly requested that Colombian politicians refrain from meddling in domestic U.S. elections, pointing to international nonintervention norms such as the 1933 Montevideo Convention. Former ambassador Santos later admitted that the precedent was deeply harmful to Colombia’s most critical foreign alliance.

Billionaire spending and economic pressures

The tightening congressional races such as Salazar’s in Miami are playing out against a backdrop of historic campaign finance activity, heavily driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. According to recent reports, Musk has funneled over US$276 million into Republican groups and his own super PAC, America PAC, since the beginning of July. This staggering sum makes the world’s richest person the largest known donor in the midterm elections.

A significant portion of Musk’s spending, US$158 million, was directed to the Senate Leadership Fund over the summer in an effort to secure the Republican Senate majority. His America PAC has also deployed over US$76 million to build a massive canvassing operation across seven Senate battlegrounds and nearly three dozen House races.

A major focus of Musk’s operation has been the Texas Senate race, where his PAC contributed US$10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, supporting Republican incumbent Ken Paxton. The canvassing efforts in Texas and beyond have heavily leaned into cultural issues, particularly targeting Democratic candidates over their stances on transgender rights, a personal cause for Musk.

As the midterms near, the Republican Party is grappling with economic challenges that could influence voters. The Consumer Price Index report for September showed overall prices rising 0.6%, with a year-over-year inflation rate of 3.7%. This increase was largely driven by a surge in energy prices following the outbreak of war in Iran in February, which has constrained global oil supplies and pushed gasoline prices 34.2% higher than a year ago.