Crist picks Miami-Dade running mate, and needlessly gives DeSantis an opening to attack | Editorial

It was no surprise that Democrat Charlie Crist — again — turned to Miami-Dade County for his choice of running mate in the governor’s race.

Picking a young Hispanic woman, fluent in Spanish, with deep roots in the largest and most vote-rich county in Florida is a no-brainer. That’s what he did in 2014, when he selected Annette Taddeo, a Colombian American and former local Democratic Party chair who’s now a state senator and seeking a seat in Congress.

But, this time around, Crist has left us wondering what the strategy behind his choice is.

Gubernatorial races aren’t won because of running mates. Most voters, we bet, can’t name Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lieutenant governor, former Miami state Rep. Jeanette Nunez. But running mates shouldn’t do harm to a campaign, either — and the coverage Crist’s choice has received in the past few days raises the question of whether he played right into Republicans’ hands.

Only time will tell.

Karla Hernandez-Mats, 42, is a former special-education teacher and the president of United Teachers of Dade, the local teachers union. She doesn’t elevate the Democratic ticket with a big name, which could help Crist. But choosing her does make sense in one important way: DeSantis has politicized education and schools; Crist’s choice sends a message that he won’t cede the issue to Republicans. Hernandez-Mats has been an effective leader in public education, helping pass a 2018 referendum to give teachers raises and standing up to DeSantis.

At the same time, bringing the focus of the race to education is a gamble for Democrats. The crossover between education and Florida’s culture wars — i.e. DeSantis’ crusade against “critical race theory” and LGBTQ+ rights — has worked well for Republicans under the misnomer of “parental rights.”

Republicans seem to believe Hernandez-Mats offers a golden opportunity to attach “radical leftist” to the moderate Crist. That label is far from reality but the Crist campaign must, or should, have seen such an attack coming.

Republicans wasted no time in going after Hernandez-Mats as a “union boss,” as “anti-parent” and a Fidel Castro sympathizer. The latter is based on a cryptic tweet she sent when the Cuban dictator died: “A political figure dies at 90. Most in Miami rejoice, many in Cuba mourn #FidelCastro.” Was that a statement of fact? Was it a show of support or opposition to Castro? Regardless, it raises the question about vetting. Did the Crist campaign even know the tweet existed? And did his advisors think about how that would play in Miami-Dade?

Abortion rights is the key

Democrats hope anger over the dismantling of abortion rights will unleash the wave that takes them over the top in the November elections. Some of the women suggested to be Crist’s running mate have strong backgrounds in reproductive rights. Others were current elected officials, but many didn’t want to resign from their posts to run with Crist, as Florida law requires.

That’s not to say that Hernandez-Mats, an energetic, progressive leader, cannot speak credibly about the threat to women’s rights. Republicans passed a 15-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest this year, and DeSantis has vowed to expand “pro-life protections.”

Crist, who resigned from his congressional seat on Wednesday, must use Hernandez-Mats as his bridge with women voters. She’s a woman of color, the daughter of working-class Honduran immigrants and the mother of two children in the public school system who’s also on the front lines of public education.

And she needs to talk about the GOP’s extreme position on abortion — a lot.

Meanwhile, DeSantis will hammer Hernandez-Mats for opposing his decision to force schools to re-open in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, without proper health and safety protocols. DeSantis can point to the catastrophic impact school closures have had on learning and youth mental health — not to mention working parents. That even parents in blue San Francisco got fed up with officials unwilling to re-open classrooms, triggering protests last year, shows the strength this issue has for Republicans.

The DeSantis campaign has also accused Hernandez-Mats of protecting a former Miami-Dade teacher currently serving an eight-year prison for sexual battery on students. While there’s no indication that she personally did so, it defies reason to believe her links to him wouldn’t become an issue.

Wendell Nibbs and Hernandez-Mats rose though union ranks at the same time. He had been accused by students of sexual misconduct for 12 years, but those allegations were deemed unfounded until 2016. That same year, Nibbs ran to be a union delegate as part of the same 100-member union caucus as Hernandez-Mats, who was elected president, the Herald reported. He posted photos on the union’s social-media page next to Hernandez-Mats while he was under investigation. In 2019, Hernandez-Mats said, through a spokesperson, that it’s the school district’s role to deem employees qualified and safe to be in a school environment. She later denounced him when the Herald published a story detailing the charges against him.

The Crist campaign defended Hernandez-Mats, saying she had nothing to do with the NIbbs investigation, and has tried to switch the focus to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican who is the target of a federal investigation into sex-trafficking allegations involving underage girls. Gaetz, who has not been charged, was a top campaign advisor to DeSantis, starting back when the current governor was a little-known congressman.

We’re sure this is not the type of coverage the Crist campaign hoped to get in the days after announcing his running mate. Hernandez-Mats brings energy, diversity and education credentials to the race, but will that be enough to overcome the backlash she’s faced?