HIALEAH, Fla. — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist has chosen a teachers union boss as his running mate to defeat Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, a decision that puts education issues front and center in one of the nation’s most closely watched races. Crist announced Saturday that he has chosen Karla Hernández-Mats, president of the United Teachers of Dade since 2016, to run on his ticket. Hernández-Mats is a former high school special education teacher who was named Florida Teacher of the Year in 2010 and is the daughter of Honduran immigrants. As for DeSantis, he sees his education policies as one of his strongest cases for re-election. The governor defied federal health officials and teachers unions in the fall of 2020 when he decided to reopen schools during the pandemic. Although it faced backlash for months, many blue states eventually followed suit as they concluded that closing schools did more harm than good. Coverage of the school reopening conflict and DeSantis’ ability to regularly make national headlines has many people speculating that he will run for president in 2024. Hernandez-Matz previously clashed with DeSandis and defied him by implementing mask mandates in schools. He opposed the reopening of schools and said schools should have remained virtual. Asked about her position on Saturday, Hernández-Mats said during a news conference with reporters that she was not wrong and took credit for the fact that the reopening of schools was not linked to increased deaths from COVID-19. “We’ve always been in favor of opening our schools,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure our schools opened with the appropriate measures in place to protect our children and the people who work with children every day.” —Karla Hernández (@KarlaforFlorida) October 8, 2020 In his speech Saturday, Crist described Hernandez-Matz as “likeable and compassionate,” qualities he said could not be found in his Republican opponent. Throughout his campaign, Crist has been described as a skilled legislator and unifier. Anna Fusco, who leads the Broward Union of Teachers, told Insider that Hernandez-Matz was “the best choice she could have made,” calling her a “strong, powerful woman for everyone’s rights.” “It sends a message to DeSantis that you’re wrong and we’re going to make it right again,” he said, “that you don’t know what you’re talking about. And that education is the foundation, the core of our country and our Florida, so it’s a message to get out out of the way. We’re going in and winning and we’re going to make Florida the way it used to be.” In a statement, the Republican National Committee compared Hernandez to Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who has lobbied to delay the reopening of schools. Julia Friedland, spokeswoman for the RNC, called Hernández-Mats “the perfect fit for the unpopular, anti-parent campaign of lockdown-loving Crist.” DeSantis is keeping his current lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nuñez, on his ticket for re-election. Nuñez is a former state legislator who is bilingual in Spanish and English. During his tenure, DeSantis has reignited culture war issues by moving to limit school curriculum or practices regarding race, gender and sexual orientation. He has touted the phrase “parental rights” arguing that parents have more say in how schools choose textbooks and curriculum. “He’s focused on the culture wars and banning books, that’s not doing anything for our kids,” Florida Democratic Party Chairman Manny Diaz told Insider. But there are some signs that DeSantis’ positions on education have support. This year DeSantis took the unprecedented step of endorsing 30 school board candidates, and 25 of them were either elected or promoted during Tuesday’s primary — a sign the campaign sees as evidence that people are embracing the governor’s education agenda. Hernandez-Matz told reporters Saturday that voters who supported De Sandys’ school board candidates “need more education” about the real issues in Florida’s schools. Representative Charlie Crist and Gov. Ron DeSantis. Octavio Jones/Getty Images and Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Hernandez-Matz vows to ‘bring back decency and respect’
If elected, Crist has pledged to make the education commissioner position an elected position, raise teacher pay and declare a teacher shortage emergency at a time when the state has a 9,000-person teacher shortage, among other pledges.
Florida is No. 48 in the nation for average teacher salaries, according to the National Education Association, even though state lawmakers and DeSantis have raised salaries in the past year and given bonuses to teachers.
On Saturday, during her acceptance speech, Hernández-Mats wasted no time bashing DeSantis.
“Tired of the culture wars and extremists dictating what we can say and do?” she asked the gathering of supporters, wavering between English and Spanish. “Tired of politicians acting like authoritarians trying to dismantle our democracy? That’s why we’re here today: to defeat Ron DeSantis and restore decency and respect to the state of Florida.”
Crist made his candidacy announcement at Hialeah Middle School, the school where Hernández-Mats taught. Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County with a majority Hispanic population and has the highest percentage of Cuban and Cuban-American residents of any city in the US.
Hernandez-Matz, 42, has not previously held elected office. He faced criticism for a 2016 tweet in which he said many people in Cuba were mourning the death of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s communist dictator.
Asked to explain the statement Saturday, Hernández-Mats called out Nuñez for recent comments she made about how Florida should send immigrants to Delaware.
“The reality is that when Fidel Castro died, I was in the streets with pots and pans, banging them and celebrating with the rest of my colleagues and my neighbors,” Hernandez-Matz said.
Crist, a lawmaker whose district includes St. Petersburg, is bidding for his old job. He previously served as Florida’s governor, as a Republican, from 2007 to 2011, and was Florida’s education commissioner in 2000.
“We want real freedom for the people of Florida because under DeSantis it’s about ‘We’re the freest state in the country,’” Crist said. “Well, obviously not if you’re a woman and you want to vote, or an African-American who wants access to vote, or a senior citizen who wants to be able to vote by mail.”
Hernández-Mats told reporters she was “proud” and “humbled” Crist chose her and said she was “ready to work”.
“This is part of the American dream,” he said. “I’m a first-generation American. You know, my parents are immigrants, and to think that these opportunities could be afforded to me, a high school teacher, that’s what the United States is about.”
