Annette Taddeo is shaking up the Florida governor’s race

ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL: Stasis in politics, especially Florida politics, never lasts forever. 

For almost half a year, the Democratic primary for Governor was squarely a Nikki vs. Charlie showdown.

Insurgent Nikki Fried, the media-savvy and decently progressive Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services who has regularly tussled with Governor Ron DeSantis, has been seen as a likely candidate from the minute she took the oath of office in January 2019. As of 2018, Fried is the last Democrat to win statewide in Florida, a point she highlights constantly on the campaign trail and in her media releases. She has also leveraged her position as Florida’s only Democrat member of the Cabinet to release daily COVID-19 numbers (which DeSantis has refused to provide) and to present herself as a shadow Governor waiting to take over. 

The establishment, meanwhile, has somewhat coalesced around Charlie Crist, the former Republican Attorney General and Governor turned Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010 turned Democrat nominee for Governor in 2014 turned Democratic U.S. Representative who flipped, and has held onto, the ever-competitive 13th Congressional District. Caught all that? Crist is a fundraising juggernaut, hauling in massive amounts of money from donors across the state. This makes a lot of sense –– after all, this campaign is Crist’s fifth statewide campaign and his third run for Governor, making Crist a very well-known figure across the state. 

The two have been, for the most part, gracefully traveling across the state, balancing campaigning with their day jobs as they try to win over Florida voters. All indications have shown that the race is not settled, with neither Fried and Crist garnering 50% support at the moment and a large number of primary voters declaring themselves ‘undecided.’ Although Crist does perform better against DeSantis than Fried in some of the match-up polls, Fried still has a tall ceiling given her comparably lower name recognition across the state, meaning that the race has remained in flux.

Now, a third candidate joins the mix. State Senator Annette Taddeo, once Crist’s running mate in his 2014 run, has announced she is running for Governor as well. In a mostly autobiographical video posted on Twitter, Taddeo proclaims herself to be a “lifelong Democrat,” a jab at both Crist and Fried, given their connections and former affiliations with the Republican Party. In dramatic fashion, she recounts her life story as an immigrant whose family was victimized by Marxist guerilla groups in Colombia. The video also details her experience as a business owner and mom who entered public service to fight for working people. 

Taddeo’s video immediately garnered positive reactions among many Florida progressives who felt tepid about Fried and Crist’s candidacies. Thomas Kennedy, a notable progressive activist in the state who also serves as a DNC member for Florida, retweeted the announcement video. 

Progressive lawmakers also reacted positively to her announcement. Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Winter Park), a star among Florida progressives who I interviewed this April, retweeted it as well. Rep. Carlos Smith (D-Orlando), another progressive darling and frequent Taddeo collaborator from the other side of the Legislature, also celebrated her entry into the race, tweeting “this is BIG (sic) news… The gubernatorial race has fundamentally changed.”

Taddeo’s run isn’t a particular surprise –– after all, a private poll (released by Taddeo allies) had come out a few months back indicating Taddeo could win the primary and galvanize voters who were tepid about Crist and Fried. Taddeo’s background and life story have the potential to resonate with Florida voters, especially the non-Cuban Latinx/Hispanic voters who voted more for Trump in 2020 than they had in 2016. Taddeo also has the distinction of representing the only district in the Florida Senate that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Donald Trump in 2020, giving her a unique electoral record to campaign on and legitimize her candidacy. 

I’ve written before about how Florida Democrats need to do more to engage voters of color and voters from marginalized communities and mobilize them. Rarely have Latinx voters seen themselves represented by Democratic candidates running for statewide office in Florida –– in fact, Republicans have run more statewide candidates who identify as Latinx than Democrats have. The party’s record over the last quarter century clearly shows that Democrats’ strategy of picking white “Tampa moderate” candidates have yielded few dividends for the party’s success statewide. Taddeo could change this. 

It’s also worth noting that the double punch of having national star Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) at the top of the ticket as well could also make a significant difference in terms of voter engagement, fundraising for the party and activist enthusiasm across the board. In 2018, Andrew Gillum’s candidacy for Governor was instrumental in tightening the margins for Sen. Bill Nelson’s flailing re-election campaign and ginning up enthusiasm among statewide activists who were excited about the prospect of electing the first Black governor of Florida; it is very likely that if Democrats nominate both Taddeo and Demings as their standard-bearers, their candidacies could do the same.

Taddeo’s presence on the ballot could additionally thwart the coattails effect that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) could have extended to DeSantis as he also runs for re-election. Rubio has long been good at drawing turnout from Latinx voters in the state, but Taddeo’s presence could redirect that support.  

Taddeo is certainly qualified to be Governor and has the progressive bona fides to win the primary. Plus, she makes a compelling case that Florida Democrats should run candidates that look like the rest of the state (i.e. running Latinx/Hispanic/Latino candidates). 

That being said, Taddeo faces obvious challenges. For one, she’s not nearly as well known across the state as Crist, or even Fried. Second, as a State Senator, she’ll face significant limitations in fundraising capacity, especially given the restraints that govern fundraising during the upcoming legislative session. 

These challenges will inspire a question that I’m more than confident will linger over the next few months: is her run actually productive? Or will it just split the progressive vote and hand Crist the nomination? This question will become especially relevant as fundraising numbers trickle in for Taddeo’s campaign, new polling comes out and real intensive campaigning for the primary begins next year. 

Then again, Andrew Gillum won the nomination for Governor in 2018 even though he struggled with all of those same questions in his primary. 

As with anything and everything in Florida politics, it’s far too early to tell what will come of these things. That being said, Annette Taddeo’s entry in the race already changes the landscape, and the outlook, for Democrats statewide. 

Eric Bazail-Eimil is a lead editor at On the Record. A junior in the School of Foreign Service majoring in Regional and Comparative Studies, Eric is originally from South Florida. Subscribe to his newsletter about Florida politics, “The Florida Project” here.