By The Associated Press via
NBC News
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Democrat Charlie Crist on Saturday named Miami-Dade County Teachers Union President Karla Hernandez-Mats as his running mate to challenge incumbent Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida.
Crist, a congressman who served as the state's governor as a Republican a decade ago, announced United Teachers of Dade union president Hernandez-Mats as his choice at a rally in Miami.
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The selection of Hernandez-Mats ensures that Crist's campaign will focus on education, a field in which DeSantis has had considerable success in galvanizing his conservative base through his strategy of hands-off in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and the policies that limit classroom discussions of racial and LGBTQ issues.
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Hernandez-Mats advocated delaying a return to school in the fall of 2020 and continuing mask mandates in 2021, in defiance of the DeSantis administration.
United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats, center, with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, second from right, in Miami Springs, Fla., on May 31, 2022.Lynne Sladky/AP file
She is the daughter of two Honduran immigrants who came to the United States in the 1970s and was the first Hispanic to be elected to lead the United Teachers of Dade union in 2016.
Crist secured the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday after defeating state agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried.
