Our friends at RedState had this first, but it’s pretty damn funny: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is trying to become the next Speaker of the House despite a significant member of his caucus hating his guts, tried to campaign for Democrats in the Cuban community in South Florida, and it did not go well. Jeffries was with Eliott Rodriguez, a former reporter, who is challenging Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) in Florida's 27th congressional district. They stopped by CAO Bakery & Café, snapped a photo, and the reaction was swift.
The owner of the bakery wanted to clarify that they’re proudly anti-communist:
🇺🇸 Thank you, Leader @hakeemjeffries, for supporting our campaign! I look forward to joining you in Congress to lower costs and undo the damage MAGA loyalists like @MaElviraSalazar have done to FL-27 families. Special thanks to Yvette Cao and the @CaoBakery team! https://t.co/8vZYOW7Xws
— Eliott Rodriguez (@ERodforCongress) October 16, 2026
The backlash from the local Cuban community was fast and fierce because, well, Cuban Americans know quite a bit about the harsh realities of socialism. Things became so intense that CAO owner Yvette Rodriguez Cao felt compelled to make it clear that allowing Democrats into her bakery was not an endorsement of their politics.
“We stand by beliefs that we want to support freedom, we’re against communism,” Rodriguez Cao told NBC 6.
Vicky Bakery, another Cuban bakery run by Rodriguez Cao's family, then jumped into the fray with its own statement denouncing socialism and making clear that the political event at CAO had nothing to do with Vicky Bakery.
María Elvira Salazar did some denouncing of her own, calling out Eliott Rodriguez for campaigning with Jeffries in the first place and bringing him into a Cuban cafe, saying, "It is an insult to parade this ideology through a community built by survivors of socialism and embrace the very people who champion it."
[…]
Rodriguez immediately went into damage control mode, indignantly stating, “I think it’s incredibly sad that in these tough economic times, my opponent is trying to destroy a small business by using her social media goons to attack a business that all they did was invite two non-socialists to have pastelitos and cafecito.”
Ms. Salazar is wrong on amnesty and mass deportations. Even her own constituents say she’s misreading the tea leaves, but I’m not throwing in the towel. Obviously, I hope she beats Rodriguez.