Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for governor in Florida, intends to pick Karla Hernandez-Mats as his running mate. Hernandez-Mats is the president of the Miami teachers union.
Is Crist out of his mind?
Earlier this week, Crist kicked off his campaign by saying that he didn’t want DeSantis voters to vote for him because they have “hate” in their hearts. This represented a novel strategy, given that DeSantis won the election in 2018. But picking Hernandez-Mats? That makes Crist’s opening gambit look like a masterstroke. A lot of new voters have moved into Florida since 2018, and the thing they care about more than anything else in the world is that the schools here were open while they were locked down up in the Northeast.
DeSantis made keeping the schools open his calling card. Hernandez-Mats? Not so much:
Reminder that in 2020, @CharlieCrist’s new expected running mate Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the Miami teachers union, set up a protest to keep schools closed. She brought hearses outside of a school board meeting, insinuating kids would die if schools were opened up. pic.twitter.com/W7zqqCGxvM
— Will Witt (@thewillwitt) August 26, 2022
It’s baffling. Of all the things the Democrats could hit Ron DeSantis for, they’re choosing the biggest asset he has? Somehow — somehow! — Charlie Crist looked around a state of 21 million people, and decided that his best option as a running mate was Randi Weingarten Jr.
How?