Latino Victory Fund announces six-figure ad campaign for Annette Taddeo, Karla Hernández

Less than a week before Election Day, a progressive PAC backing Latino candidates nationwide is launching a six-figure ad campaign to support Democratic Miami Sen. Annette Taddeo’s campaign for Congress and Karla Hernández’s bid to be Lieutenant Governor.

Washington-based Latino Victory Fund announced the four-ad, $250,000 campaign Thursday morning. It follows South Florida get-out-the-vote activities in August and October that featured celebrities like Latino Victory co-founder Eva Longoria and Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose father Chairs the organization.

“Latino voters will be decisive in races up and down the ballot in Florida,” Latino Victory Fund Managing Director Yvonne Gutierrez said in a statement. “These ads are key investments that will help mobilize voters to support two top-of-ticket, phenomenal Latina candidates.”

Three of the ads center on Taddeo’s race against Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar. One highlights Taddeo’s union endorsements, background as a small business owner and her history-making status as the first Latina Democrat to win a seat in the state Senate.

The other two target Salazar. One magnifies past praise she gave to Cuban dictators Fidel and Raul Castro while working as a TV reporter. The other reminds viewers that she voted against impeaching Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and repeated a false narrative about the integrity of the 2020 election.

The video supporting Hernández, meanwhile, takes aim at Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “partisan attacks” on education. Hernández is running alongside gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist Hernández on the Democratic ticket for Governor.

“Ron DeSantis has turned our classes into a battleground,” the ad says, “Nobody knows this better than our teachers. What Florida needs right now is a teacher. Florida needs a mother. Florida needs Karla Hernández.”

Recent polling shows Taddeo in a statistical tie with Salazar for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which covers a large portion of southeast Miami-Dade County, including the municipalities of Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and the unincorporated neighborhoods of Coral Terrace, Fisher Island, Glenvar Heights, Richmond Heights, Sunset, the Crossings, Three Lakes, Westchester and Westwood Lakes.

The outlook is less sunny for Crist and Hernández, who are down double digits against DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.

That notwithstanding, voters would be better served with Taddeo and Hernández in office, according to Gutierrez.

“Sen. Taddeo’s a formidable, experienced candidate who sprinted to the top contender position to flip the 27th Congressional District Democratic, and we’ve ramped up efforts to mobilize Latino voters to ensure she makes it across the finish line,” she said.

“Karla’s a dedicated leader with a solid background in education who will fight for Florida’s families and workers as Lieutenant Governor. We want Latino voters to know what’s at stake in this election and that they can choose to elect Latina Democrats who will fight for Florida’s families instead of GOP extremists who support an insurrection and are damaging Florida’s schools.”