Annette Taddeo starts guv campaign with a bang — and $650K from donors

Just two weeks after, finally, announcing she would run for Florida Governor next year, State Sen. Annette Taddeo has already amassed more than $650,000 in contributions between her campaign account and her political action committee.

This isn’t reflected yet on the Florida Division of Elections page, but her political consultant, Christian Ulvert, said it would be in the October report that is to be filed Wednesday.

Taddeo is being billed as “the only Hispanic candidate and the only candidate with a child in public schools” to try to get people from different niches excited and engaged in the race.

“Annette has been counted out and underestimated her entire political career,” Jackie Lee, Senior Advisor to the campaign, said in a statement.

“But one thing is clear from this early fundraising success — our movement is growing and this campaign will have the resources it needs to compete statewide,” Lee said.

While her candidacy was long rumored and somewhat expected, Taddeo officially jumped into the Democratic primary earlier this month, joining the front runners: U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, who ran with Taddeo as his LG on his 2014 ticket, and Nikki Fried, Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. Crist and Fried have been fundraising since May and June, respectively.

Crist has raised more than $1.5 million just in his campaign account and Fried had reported $883,619 as of the last reporting period ending Sept. 30. October’s report is due Wednesday.

But it is going to take more than money to win this race. It’s going to take charisma and chutzpah. Taddeo campaign team say her run is about the future of Florida, “leaving the recycled campaign book in the past.”

Certainly she is talking about the major ass whooping that Democrats have taken, not just this month in places like Virginia, but in Florida last year.

This will be a super important, nationally watched race. Ron DeSantis is being groomed for a potential presidential run. So, this is not only Florida’s future at stake, but the country’s. He will be in a terrible position to run for president as the loser of this race. And he DeSastre is vulnerable from his terrible handling of the COVID-19 emergency and an epic fail in the unemployment system. Okay, he inherited it. But he didn’t fix it.

Taddeo is an unlikely hero. She lost what seems like a dozen races (it’s really four) before she won her first Senate race against racist misogynist, disgraced former State Rep. Frank Artiles, who has since turned to running illegal candidates in other senate races. Because he can’t win legally. And, as executive director of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, she missed plenty opportunities and watered the party down to what it is today.

But she’s a fighter.

“I believe to win this race it’ll take a coalition of voters, and we as Democrats have to work to regain those communities we lost,” Taddeo said in a statement. “I know I can be the leader to bring those communities back, not because I speak their language, but because I know their values.

The daughter of an American WWII fighter, Annette was 17 when she was forced to flee her home in Colombia after a Marxist terrorist group, funded by the Cuban regime, gained power. After living and working her way through college waiting tables in Alabama — which explains her tiny southern drawl — Taddeo moved to Miami to help parents after Hurricane Andrew. She was living in a motor home when she started her own translation business at the age of 22.

“I speak to the values of a small business owner, the values of our parents and teachers, the values of our students, the values of our immigrant families,” Taddeo said. “I believe, no matter our differences, our experiences and values will bring us together.

“Through our unity we will build a better future for all Floridians.”

Annette Taddeo, Charlie Crist, Nikki Fried

Annette Taddeo starts guv campaign with a bang — and $650K from donors added by Ladra on November 8, 2021
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