Eliezer Molina is an independent member of the Senate of Puerto Rico, serving at large. Molina was first elected in November 2024 as a write-in candidate, becoming the first person to win a Puerto Rico Senate seat through direct nomination on the ballot. The State Elections Commission had disqualified Molina’s petition to run as an independent in February 2024 over missing documents and an incomplete drug test, a decision upheld in court, after which Molina campaigned for voters to write the name in. Molina received about 71,250 votes, enough for one of the 11 at-large seats, and after a dispute over counting ballots with spelling variations of the name, was certified at the turn of the year and sworn in during January 2025. Molina had earlier run for governor as an independent in 2020, receiving roughly 8,750 votes.1
Born on September 2, 1980, in Mayagüez, Molina spent formative years in San Sebastián and attended Escuela Patria Torres Ramírez. Molina earned a civil engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and worked in the field before turning to environmental advocacy; after Hurricane María, Molina also took up studies in economics with a focus on sustainable development. Molina became known for campaigns against construction on public coastal land and in protected areas, including efforts to restore Playa Los Almendros in Rincón and protests over building on mangroves in La Parguera in Lajas.
In the Senate, Molina has continued that focus. In January 2025 Molina filed a resolution seeking to have La Parguera recognized again in its entirety as a natural reserve and referred alleged illegal construction there to federal environmental and wildlife agencies. Under Senate rules for members without a party delegation, Molina receives committee assignments designated by the Senate President.
