Charlie Crist expected to select Karla Hernandez-Mats as running mate

MIAMI – Charlie Crist is expected to announce he has chosen Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the lecturers union in Miami, to be his running mate, in accordance to 4 sources acquainted with the choice. 

The announcement is slated for 10:30 am on Saturday throughout what the marketing campaign is promoting as a “Special Event.” 

The location of the “Special Event” has not but been launched to supporters. But three sources inform CBS Miami it is going to be at Hialeah Middle School, the place Hernandez-Mats labored for greater than ten years instructing youngsters with particular wants. In 2010 she was the varsity district’s Teacher of the Year. 

The Crist marketing campaign stated it will not touch upon who Crist has chosen to be his Lieutenant Governor and inspired a reporter to present up on Saturday to see. 

The choice of Hernandez-Mats to be on the ticket with him, signifies Crist is leaning into the battle with Governor Ron DeSantis over schooling. 

“She’s a good choice,” stated one Democrat acquainted with the choice. “Ron DeSantis has doubled down on education. We know it’s going to be a focus in the campaign, and you are bringing in someone who was a teacher and who understands the issue.” 

Added one other supply: “Having a mom and a teacher and someone exciting will be great.” This supply added that as a result of abortion is probably going to be a serious problem within the election, having a lady on the ticket was important. 

Born and raised in Miami, Hernandez-Mats is first-generation Honduran. The 42-year-old is married and has two younger youngsters. She has been president of the United Teachers of Dade since 2016. 

Crist was elected Florida Education Commissioner as a Republican in 2000 and sometimes talks about how vital lecturers have been in his life. 

At an occasion final month, Crist stated: “My father was on the Pinellas County School Board. Two of my three sisters were public school teachers. I graduated from one of our great state universities It’s in my DNA.” 

Nevertheless, Republicans throughout the nation consider schooling is a successful problem for them. It proved important within the Virginia Governor’s race final yr by which Glenn Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAullife embraced the recommendation of the lecturers union through the pandemic.

Taking a web page from Youngkin’s playbook, DeSantis has made what he calls “parental rights” a cornerstone of his marketing campaign and has aggressively pushed laws to restrict what might be taught, and even mentioned within the classroom. DeSantis’s Department of Education has banned sure books – together with math textbooks – that it believes promotes a “woke” tradition. He has additionally created coaching seminars for lecturers on how to train historical past, which critics argue downplays slavery within the United States and pushes a Christian nationalist agenda. 

In this yr’s major, DeSantis weighed in a college board races throughout the state, pushing a slate of conservative candidates, lots of whom have been profitable. 

He has additionally been important of Crist, arguing he’s beholden to the trainer’s union and that it was the trainer’s unions throughout the state that stored colleges closed through the pandemic. 

It needs to be famous, nevertheless, that it was DeSantis who initially ordered a statewide shutdown in April 2020.