The Great Pivot: Richard Lamondin hops to Senate race vs Alexis Calatayud

And now Annette Taddeo may want it, too

Like a cat leaping off a sinking canoe and landing in a speedboat — that’s how fast the race for Florida Senate District 38 just woke up.

Or maybe it’s more like musical chairs, Miami-style: The music changed, a bigger player walked into the room, and suddenly one candidate decided he liked a different chair better.

Either way, the once-sleepy contest for Senate District 38 just got jolted awake.

Let’s start with what Ladra likes to call The Great Predictable Pivot: Miami environmental entrepreneur Richard Lamondin has officially jumped out of the crowded Democratic primary for Congress in District 27 — where he’d been campaigning for about a year — and into a new fight: taking on Republican incumbent Sen. Alexis Calatayud.

So, different battlefield — although the districts overlap — same war chest, new neighbors.

Lamondin’s move is a strategic choice. It comes as the congressional race in Florida’s 27th Congressional District heats up, thanks in part to the entry of former television anchor Eliott Rodriguez, who brought name recognition and political oxygen to what had been a crowded but relatively low-voltage Democratic primary, becoming the automatic frontrunner without even knocking on one door.

And when the oxygen level changes, campaigns start making survival calculations. In this case, it’s from Washington to Tallahassee. Lamondin is now targeting Florida Senate District 38, a seat Democrats see as one of their best pickup opportunities.

The district is a sprawling slice of suburban Miami-Dade — Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Kendall, Westchester, South Miami, Coral Gables, Redland — a political patchwork that demands both money and message discipline.

Republican Calatayud, first elected in 2022, isn’t exactly a sitting duck. She won her first race with 54% of the vote, beating Democrat Janelle Perez after longtime Democratic figure Annette Taddeo vacated the seat to chase a congressional run that didn’t pan out.

Speaking of which… plot twist. Taddeo is reportedly “strongly considering” jumping back into the race to reclaim her old territory.

Because in Miami politics, old seats have long memories.

Lamondin’s pivot isn’t happening in a vacuum.

Political insiders had been whispering for weeks that the congressional primary for a chance to go against Republican María Elvira Salazar was becoming a demolition derby. Too many Democrats. Not enough oxygen. And then came Rodriguez, with the kind of name ID that makes donors pause and consultants drop clients.

So, Lamondin did what more seasoned candidates do when the math changes: he recalculated. Instead of fighting uphill in a crowded congressional field, he’s now stepping into a legislative race Democrats have circled on their whiteboards for months.

Strategic retreat? Opportunistic pivot? Political survival instinct?

Pick your metaphor.

In his launch video and press rollout, Lamondin is leaning hard into the biography Democrats love to showcase: small-business roots, payroll responsibilities, family expenses, insurance pain. He talks about preschool bills “that rival rent,” aging parents, insurance premiums that have nearly tripled — kitchen-table economics packaged for suburban voters who feel squeezed from every angle.

It’s just him, sitting on a toilet — which is new — talking about how he and his brother started a business fixing leaky toilets to save families and businesses money. “We went door to door fixing toilets one building at a time. Then two buildings. Then hundreds across the country.”

His company doesn’t just focus on lowering costs for people, but also saving energy.

Lamondin says he was encouraged to run for state office because of his four-year-old son, Leonardo. “I look at my son and think about the Florida that he’s going to inherit,” he said in the nearly 3-minute video that takes pot shots at Alligator Alcatraz and the giveaway of Biscayne Boulevard land for a Trump library and hotel.

“That’s who they are. That’s who they’ve been for 30 years,” he says into the camera, clearly still focused on the general election. “Real change starts with people who give a damn.”

He also took a semi shot at Taddeo when he said this was one of the most important fights in the state. “Miami, we no longer have to choose between a Democrat who can’t win and a Republican we can live with,” he said.

Ouch. Taddeo has lost at least five major political races during her career, including bids for Congress in 2008 against Ileana Ros- Lehtinen and 2022, when she left the senate to run in the same congressional district and was beaten by the current Congresswoman, Maria Elvira Salazar. Taddeo also lost races for the Miami-Dade County Commission (2010), as Lt. Gov. with Charlie Crist (2014) and the Miami-Dade County Clerk (2024). She served as Florida Senator from 2017–2022, but then withdrew from the 2022 Florida gubernatorial contest.

But she’s scrappy. Born in Colombia, she spent her first 17 years before fleeing to the U.S. after terrorists kidnapped her father. She is the owner and operator of a translation business called LanguageSpeak. She has served as the chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.

And she wouldn’t have to start from scratch like Lamondin does.

“We need candidates who can win, who don’t have to spend $7 out of every $10 introducing themselves to voters, who have built-in name ID,” JC Planas, who helps recruit candidates for the local Dems, told Florida Politics.

“It goes without saying that if she had not left to run for Congress, she would have gotten re-elected and continued to be a bipartisan force in the Senate, and she would have been much better at crafting laws that will protect Floridians.”

Planas said the timing was key and that Taddeo is definitely looking at it. “She realizes the urgency in trying to end the Republican supermajority in the Senate. That’s extremely important.”

But Lamondin already has some important Democratic endorsements. State Sen. Shevrin Jones is already in his corner. So is Florida Senate Democratic Leader-Designate Tracie Davis. So is Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, who called District 38 one of the party’s top targets this cycle. (She also ran against Taddeo for the state party chairmanship.)

“Florida is shifting. Voters are fed up with the corruption in Tallahassee, and Democrats are winning races across the state,” Fried said, obviously psyched, like most national Dems, about the wins of two Democrats in special legislative races last month, which turned previously red districts blue.

“SD-38 is one of our top seats to flip this year — and candidates like Richard are the ones to do it,” Fried said in her statement. “We need Democratic candidates who understand what families here are going through because they are living it too.”

But, first, cafecito. Then the primary.

Before Lamondin even gets a shot at Calatayud, he has to survive a Democratic primary against pastor Hiney Dixon — a former candidate for Florida City commissioner (he lost) and long shot — and possibly Taddeo, whose entry would instantly transform the race into a heavyweight contest. Like, from neighborhood scuffle to pay-per-view main event.

Unlike the newcomers, Taddeo brings institutional memory, donor lists, and residual loyalty from voters who’ve seen her name on ballots before. The name Lamondin, not so much.

And in Miami-Dade, familiarity isn’t just comfort — it’s currency.

The bigger story here isn’t just Lamondin switching races. It’s the ripple effect.

One candidate enters a congressional race. Another candidate exits. A former senator eyes a comeback. An incumbent suddenly faces a more energized opponent. Or two.

That’s how political ecosystems shift — quietly at first, then all at once. So, what was shaping up to be a relatively calm Senate race has now turned into something far more kinetic.

Not quite a hurricane yet. But definitely more than a breeze.

And if Taddeo does jump back in? That once sleepy Senate race won’t just be awake.

It’ll be running on cafe Cubano.

This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

The Great Pivot: Richard Lamondin hops to Senate race vs Alexis Calatayud added by Ladra on April 8, 2026
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