A Miami Cuban bakery condemned socialism and denied any Democratic endorsement after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stopped by with a local candidate and drew fierce community backlash.
Owner Yvette Cao of CAO Bakery appeared in an October 16 video with Jeffries and Democratic congressional candidate Eliott Rodriguez at her Miami cafe. Rodriguez posted the clip thanking the House minority leader and the bakery team while criticizing Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar, his opponent in Florida’s 27th Congressional District.
The stop-by quickly turned into a political headache. Cuban American social-media users slammed the optics of a senior Democrat appearing inside a Cuban small business, and Cao felt compelled to clear the air.
Breitbart News reported that Cao released a statement on Monday explaining how the visit happened and where her bakery stands.
Cao said the bakery received a campaign call that a Cuban American candidate wanted to stop by for a cafecito and greet the community. She opened the doors. She said she did not expect cameras and a political showcase.
In the video, Cao described a sampler care package for the visitors. Jeffries praised Rodriguez’s candidacy and thanked Cao for hosting them at her “wonderful Cuban cafe.” Rodriguez said he looked forward to taking some of the treats to Washington.
Rodriguez’s caption went further. He thanked Jeffries for supporting the campaign, said he wanted to lower costs, and accused Salazar of damaging FL-27 families. He also gave “special thanks” to Cao and the CAO Bakery team.
That framing did not sit well with many Cuban Americans watching online. Commenters tied Jeffries and Democrats to an ideology the exile community fled.
One user wrote that Cubans oppose communism because they lived it, and that doing anything with Jeffries or Democrats was “definitely not a good look.” Another accused the bakery of “aligning yourself with those Democrat idiots.”
Cao answered the criticism directly. She said she had read the messages and understood “why Friday hurts.” Then she stated the bakery’s position in plain terms.
Opening the doors, she said, was “not an endorsement of any candidate, party or platform.”
"CAO stands with our Cuban American community for a free Cuba and condemns Socialism. That will never change,"
Cao wrote. She added that the business does not discriminate based on political views, “but at the same time, I didn’t know it would turn into a press conference.”
She rooted that stance in family history. Her family is in America, she said, because of what parents and grandparents gave up to get here. Everything the bakery built, she wrote, comes from the freedom this country gave them. CAO, she said, has always been a place where people talk over a cafecito, families gather, and Cuban traditions stay alive.
The backlash spilled onto another Cuban bakery. Confusion spread about which shop hosted the visit. Vicky Bakery put out its own statement to separate itself from CAO.
"Vicky Bakery and CAO Bakery are separate businesses with different ownership. The event referenced did not take place at Vicky Bakery,"
the shop said. It went further on principle: as a business founded by Cuban immigrants, Vicky Bakery “stand[s] firmly against socialism and deeply value[s] freedom, democracy and opportunity.”
Two Cuban bakeries, same core message. Neither wanted any association with socialism. Both felt forced to say so in public after a Democratic photo opportunity landed in their community.
Rep. María Elvira Salazar did not stay quiet. The Republican incumbent posted that Rodriguez “brought the man who wants to lead the socialists in Congress into a Cuban bakery in Miami and, in one move, showed just how little he knows this community.”
"He and his socialist friends turned a Cuban small business into a political prop and left the business dealing with the fallout."
Salazar added that it is an insult to parade that ideology through a community built by survivors of socialism and to embrace people who champion it. If Rodriguez does not understand the people he wants to serve, she asked, how can Miami trust him in Congress?
The clash has history. In 2023, Salazar introduced a House resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism.” Jeffries refused to back it. He called the measure a “phony, fake, and fraudulent resolution” meant to give cover to Republicans and undermine a Democratic agenda he said lifts up Americans’ health, safety, and well-being.
Cuban voters in South Florida have long memories of what socialism produced on the island. A House leader who dismissed an anti-socialism resolution as fraudulent, then shows up for pastries and campaign video in a Miami Cuban bakery, was always going to face that history.
Rodriguez is running as a Democrat in a district where Cuban American experience still shapes politics. Jeffries, the top House Democrat, used the stop to boost that candidacy and talk about affordability and “hardworking immigrant communities.”
Cao’s account is simpler. A Cuban American candidate asked to stop by for coffee. She said yes. The visit became content. The content became a fight. The bakery then had to tell its own customers it does not endorse parties or platforms and will not soft-pedal socialism.
Vicky Bakery had to do the same work without even hosting the event. That is how radioactive the word remains in this community. Businesses that sell pastelitos and cafecito still have to post public disclaimers when national Democrats treat their counters as campaign sets.
Jeffries thanked Cao on camera and looked forward to the treats. Rodriguez talked about taking them to Washington. Salazar answered that the real takeaway was political tone-deafness in a community that escaped the system Democrats keep refusing to condemn cleanly.
Cuban Miami just reminded both parties what it will not forget. Freedom built these bakeries. Socialism is not a branding exercise, and small-business owners who know the difference will say so when the cameras leave.
