Congressman Charlie Crist, the Democrat challenging Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, has chosen the head of the largest teachers union in the Southeast as his lieutenant governor.
Karla Hernández-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade, will be introduced by Crist as his running mate at Hialeah Middle School, where she was named teacher of the year in 2010 for her work with children with special needs.
Hernández-Mats, 42, is a Miami native, of Honduran descent.
But like most running mates, she also provides a sharp contrast to the 66-year-old Crist, bringing balance in gender, ethnicity and experience to the Democrats’ ticket.
A first-time political candidate, Hernández-Mats will be paired with a three-term Democratic member of Congress from St. Petersburg, who was Republican governor from 2007-11, and is now making his seventh statewide run for office.