emocratic nominee for Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced Karla Hernández-Mats to run with him as a candidate for Lt. Governor.
Hernández-Mats was the vice president of the United Teachers of Dade, the largest teachers union in the country, run by Randi Weingarten. Many consider the choice as an attempt by Crist to respond to Governor DeSantis’ focus and involvement in education.
“Charlie Crist choosing a radical Left-wing teachers’ union boss as his running mate is a slap in the face to Florida families,” said Helen Aguirre Ferré, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Florida.
“If it were up to Crist and Mats, our children would be locked out of the classroom and indoctrinated with woke ideology, millions of Floridians would have had their livelihoods ripped away from them, our police would be defunded, and our communities would be far less safe.”
The former union vice president has had no shortage of political controversies over the years, many relevant to how she may govern if elected.
In 2016, Hernández-Mats publicly mourned the passing of Cuba’s murderous communist dictator Fidel Castro.
A political figure dies at 90. Most in Miami rejoice, many in Cuba mourn #FidelCastro
— Karla Hernández (@KarlaforFlorida) November 26, 2016
Throughout COVID-19, Hernández-Mats has repeatedly compared parents pushing for less restriction on their children as either disingenuous or a threat to safety.
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In one tweet on the United Teachers of Dade account, she implied those interested in schools opening were not genuinely concerned parents at all but “soldiers of faux rage.”
According to Charlie Crist’s running mate, teacher union boss Karla Hernandez Mats:
If you are against mask mandates in schools, you are not a parent. You are a “soldier of faux rage, false narratives, and political interests” fired up with conspiracy theories.
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) August 27, 2022
Another tweet compares these parents to horror movie villains like Freddy Krueger.
For any of you following the school board meetings, you know that the craziness is real. God be with us. #antivaxxers #disinformation #misinformation pic.twitter.com/FczrhSebGb
— Karla Hernández (@KarlaforFlorida) October 22, 2021
She went so far as to bring hearses to a school board meeting, implying the mass death of children with the loosening of COVID restrictions in school. Such mass death in Florida never materialized.
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
This perspective is consistent with Hernánde-Mats’ long-running opposition to reopening schools. She also criticized DeSantis for his reopening of the economy in Florida.
For school closure advocate Karla Hernandez-Mats, it was always too soon to reopen.https://t.co/R8mhEocyUnhttps://t.co/SfuGgGsKfNhttps://t.co/TeaqIIKyPJhttps://t.co/sHuUPMFisF pic.twitter.com/SMqfoE7SYN
— max (@MaxNordau) August 26, 2022
Hernández-Mats has also opposed DeSantis’ initiatives on education more explicitly.
In one tweet, she opposes the Parental Rights in Education act by claiming conversations about sexual orientation aren’t happening in the classroom. Despite that the law would have no impact, she characterizes the law as an “attack on students and teachers.”
Since zero, nada, none of our educators in the state of FL teach about sexual orientation to any child in k-3, the malicious & absurd intent of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is evident. This is an attack on students & teachers by homophobic extremists. #LetsTalkAboutBruno #DontSayGay pic.twitter.com/LktOwWSXLK
— Karla Hernández (@KarlaforFlorida) March 9, 2022
In another, she contradicts DeSantis’ plan to keep Critical Race Theory out of classrooms by encouraging the practice.
For school closure advocate Karla Hernandez-Mats, it was always too soon to reopen.https://t.co/R8mhEocyUnhttps://t.co/SfuGgGsKfNhttps://t.co/TeaqIIKyPJhttps://t.co/sHuUPMFisF pic.twitter.com/SMqfoE7SYN
— max (@MaxNordau) August 26, 2022
In more general political positions unrelated to education, she has compared incarceration and many conservative positions to genocide.
Great breakdown with the iceberg visual #UnitedShadesOfAmerica @wkamaubell ✊🏽 #BLM #PleaseUnmuteYourself pic.twitter.com/fvl825dMOk
— Karla Hernández (@KarlaforFlorida) July 20, 2020
She also has praised many of Joe Biden’s policies, even working with him to help prevent the collection of sexual assault data in public schools.
The pick of Hernández-Mats has been praised by those on the left side of the aisle.
A union president as Lt. Govnernor! Karla Hernández is the perfect person for this role who's going to fight tirelessly.
Crist-Hernández 2022. Let's get to work.
— Shevrin “Shev” Jones (@ShevrinJones) August 27, 2022
“We’re thrilled by Charlie Crist’s choice for his running mate. Karla Hernández-Mats will be a great lieutenant governor of and for all the people of Florida,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said.
Conservatives are delighted as well, but for a different reason. Evan Power, an official for the Florida GOP, lays out why
“Charlie Crist’s lieutenant governor pick is as tone deaf as the Democratic message here in Florida. Somehow, he thinks picking a union boss who once compared parents to armed monsters will help him with the voters of Florida.”
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