Associated Press
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist is expected to announce that he has chosen the Miami-Dade County teachers union president to be his running mate as he challenges Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, two people close to the campaign said Friday.
United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats will be announced as Crist’s running mate on Saturday, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn’t been made yet.
The pick will guarantee DeSantis’ education policy is an issue in the campaign. The governor has appealed to his conservative base by limiting discussions of race in schools; prohibiting discussion of LGBTQ issues in grades K-3 and limiting it in higher grades; forcing schools to publish the contents of their libraries and giving parents more control in selecting textbooks.
DeSantis also took action to punish school districts that enacted mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, he removed four Broward County school board members after a grand jury report on the 2018 Parkland high school shooting accused them of deceit and incompetence in handling a school safety program.
Hernandez-Mats advocated delaying students’ return to school in the fall of 2020 and continuing mask mandates in 2021, in defiance of DeSantis’ administration. She has also been critical of what opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Hernandez-Mats is the daughter of two Honduran immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1970s. She has said she learned the importance of labor advocacy because her father had few rights as a farmworker after having been an accountant in his home country.
Hernandez-Mats was the first Hispanic to be elected to lead the United Teachers of Dade in 2016. The school district has more than 30,000 employees and more than 330,000 students. The American Federation of Teachers says Hernández-Mats helped lead an effort to hold a 2018 referendum in which voters approved a pay raise for public school teachers.
In 2010, she was picked as Teacher of the Year at Hialeah Middle School for her work with special needs children.
DeSantis is widely believed to be considering a bid for the presidency in 2024; winning a second term as governor would be the first step in that journey.
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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
12 comments
Charlie Crist
August 27, 2022 at 10:45 am
We love Karla! We love Charlie! Down with MAGA neo naziism and maggot conservatives. Vote Crist!!! Vote Crist!! Vote Crist!!!
Michael Paris
August 27, 2022 at 11:16 am
Thank God he picked her. As Cubans and other Latins protest her selection in Hialeah and Dade. DeSantis just got a gift. He wasn’t going to beat Ron anyway, but this assures a victory for DeSantis. She is toxic and a communist despite escaping from Honduras.
Charlie Crist
August 27, 2022 at 11:40 am
Deport all Cubans who have gone full neo nazi. The rest of your post was bs propaganda..neo nazi propaganda.
Paul Passarelli
August 27, 2022 at 12:27 pm
ROFL — I really want to see this thread picked up by the National news outlets. It’d be priceless.
Tom
August 27, 2022 at 12:14 pm
Yes Michael.
Chameleon did us a favor.
4 more years Gov Ron.
Paul Passarelli
August 27, 2022 at 11:36 am
Tapping the teacher’s union — How predictable.
Letting these two anywhere the governor’s mansion is a virtual guarantee of higher taxes, scarcer jobs, inflation, regulation, abuse of power, institutionalized corruption, etc. Essentially everything failed about Democrat administrations.
As the man in the tuna commercial used to say:
“Sorry, Charlie. You’re not good enough to be in a can of Starkist.”
Charlie Crist
August 27, 2022 at 11:45 am
Trump’s administration was a disaster. Rich got richer, wages were terrible, and lest we forget corruption and Trump crime spree. Also the Trump Virus, Trumpflation, and Trump terrorists interrupting free and fair election process, grifting, scandals, and schemes galore.
Paul Passarelli
August 27, 2022 at 12:24 pm
How quickly they forget. The US economy was recovering, wages were up, price of energy was down, illegal immigration was under control, we regained respect overseas, North Korea was de-escalated, etc…
Then we got COVIDED and following Rahm Emmanuel’s advice “Never let a crisis go to waste.” the Democrats pulled the rug out.
Is making shit up really the best you can do?
Even though you’re not Charlie Crist, you are still a loser.
Charlie Crist
August 27, 2022 at 12:32 pm
^ Biggest poo poo narrative in human history. Prices were low because of the virus and workers in Florida were being grifted to a husk…the prolonged effects of exploitation culminating in the great resignation. The rich benefitted from Trump…and no one else. Just ask Ashli Babbitt via Ouija board buddy.
marylou
August 27, 2022 at 12:05 pm
“Virtually ALL the benefits you have at work, whether you work in the public or private sector, all of the benefits and rights you enjoy every day are there because unions fought against big business who did everything they could to prevent giving you rights. Many union leaders and members even lost their lives for things we take for granted today.
Corporations use to work employees 80+ hours a week, give no breaks, hire children, offer horrid & unsanitary work conditions, pay literally next to nothing, and even murder. They basically did whatever they wanted.”
The right-wing attack on unions is nothing more than ignorance, lack of education, and propaganda.”
____TheNewDeal00 at KOS
There has been a recent increase in workers unionizing, especially employees at some of the greediest corporations like Amazon and Starbucks..
Tom
August 27, 2022 at 12:12 pm
LMAo, DeSantis overnighted a contribution to chameleon, with thank you note.
Re-elect, 4 more years! Done.
Joe Corsn
August 27, 2022 at 12:42 pm
^ Vote RED to empower stupid people like this guy…
Comments are closed.