| | | | |  | | By Jesús A. Rodríguez | With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz
| 
POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP | What's good, mi gente! This week, the Georgia Senate race remains in a dead heat after new abortion revelations against Herschel Walker, wealthy nations consider climate reparations , and immigrant rights advocates grow frustrated with the White House . Today, we're digging into the race for Florida. Karla Hernández doesn't mince words. Of her rival, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, she tells me: "Her Latina card should be revoked." Democrat Charlie Crist picked the former teacher and union activist as his running mate in his third bid to become governor of Florida. Hernández, who is the daughter of Honduran immigrants, says the Cuban American Núñez has "lost touch" with her community after she supported a proposal to bus Cuban migrants to Delaware, President Joe Biden's home state. But with just 11 days until the midterms, FiveThirtyEight has Gov. Ron DeSantis and Núñez ahead in the polls by 10 points . Although Barack Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012, voters have elected only Republicans as governors since 2000. (Crist was governor from 2007 to 2011, serving as a Republican before switching sides.) Even some Democrats aren't sure they can recapture Florida, as my colleagues reported yesterday .
| 
Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Karla Hernández speaks during a rally held by the Latino Victory Fund, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, in Coral Gables, Fla. | Lynne Sladky/AP Photo | One clue may lie in the money. As the Hialeah native tells The Recast, "people actually resonate with our message, but Republicans just flood the airwaves and the media with their message because they outspend us almost 10 to 1." What's more, the Democratic Governors Association spent just $685,000 this election cycle, compared to $14 million in the past two governor races. But despite the funding drying up, Dems are still sending their star power to the Sunshine State. Last week, Obama cut a 30-second video endorsing Crist. Biden, who appeared with DeSantis last month while surveying the damage from Hurricane Ian, is traveling down on Tuesday to stump for Crist and Senate hopeful Val Demings. And Lin-Manuel Miranda has already appeared with Hernández at a Latino Victory Fund GOTV rally.
|  Twitter | A loss in Florida could spell trouble for Dems in 2024, especially if Republicans make gains with Latinos, who make up an important fifth of Florida eligible voters . But Hernández believes "we are that linchpin and that we're going to make a difference" where other candidates haven't, she says. (The DeSantis-Núñez campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.)
◆◆◆
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. THE RECAST: You've been on the campaign trail for a few months. What are the issues that have been resonating most with Floridians? HERNÁNDEZ: No. 1: affordability. Families and people are being priced out of their communities; people just can't make ends meet with the cost of living here. Part of that situation has been insurance costs, something that Gov. DeSantis has failed to address. Insurance is going up, and premiums are going to increase now because of the hurricane that we just had. So [Hurricane Ian] has now also become an issue. There are people on the ground who live in affected areas that don't feel that the response was quick enough, that they weren't alerted or evacuated on time. Another big issue is also choice, [given] the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Across the nation, people are uprising, people are frustrated. Women felt defeated at one point, and now they're using their strength and power to get to the ballot to make sure that their voices are heard. And then there's education. Here in Florida, we have over 9,000 vacancies [for teachers and staff in public schools]. It's a self-inflicted wound, because this state is 48th in the nation in how it pays its teachers . It's a shame. If we actually respected educators and paid them what they're worth, then maybe we wouldn't have 9,000 vacancies. After suffering through a pandemic, now is a time where we need to really invest in education, to make sure that all kids have the resources that they need so that they can overcome any educational gaps.
| 
Karla Hernández speaks to voters during a campaign stop Oct. 17, 2022, at Evelyn Greer Park in Miami. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | What we're also seeing is an attack on our profession. We have a governor who bans books. We have a governor who wants to censor teachers, who doesn't want us to [build] inclusive classrooms. We see teachers as truth tellers. We believe in seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. When he applauds ideas like changing the word "slavery" and calling it "involuntary relocation," teachers have a big problem with that, because we have to call things what they are. [Editor's note: The proposal to replace the word "slavery" in textbooks is from Texas , not Florida, but DeSantis has railed against the way slavery's role in U.S. history is taught in Florida schools.]
| | | | 
| Every week, we sit down with diverse and influential characters who are shaking up politics. Who should we profile next? Let us know. Email us at therecast@politico.com .
| | |
THE RECAST: What qualifies you for this seat, and what can you do as lieutenant governor to help address these issues?
HERNÁNDEZ: I'm a mom, a teacher and a union leader. I've been teaching for 19 years and I've been the president of the teachers union for seven years now. I do lobbying on a regular basis because I go to Tallahassee and talk to Republicans and Democrats about the issues that we have in our community and to make sure we have strong public schools. So I've been doing advocacy work for my community, for kids, for teachers, for a very long time and working with both Democrats and Republicans to make sure that we have access to the resources that we need. Our state constitution doesn't actually describe exactly what a lieutenant governor's role is, but I plan to be hands-on — that's exactly why Charlie picked me. He wants to have community at the table. My role is going to be very simple. I'm going to make sure that the promises that are made are the promises that are kept. | 
Charlie Crist, left, and his fiancee Chelsea Grimes, right, celebrate as he announces his running mate Karla Hernández at Hialeah Middle School in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday Aug. 27, 2022. | Gaston De Cardenas/AP Photo | THE RECAST: In the 21st century, we have not seen a Democratic governor in Florida, and the polls have put DeSantis ahead. What do you think will be different this cycle? HERNÁNDEZ: Every race has been lost by such a small margin, like a percentage point. [With] DeSantis' last election, it was less than a percentage point — 33,000 votes . They're very, very close margins. Every Democrat has been outspent, which I think is a telltale sign. People actually resonate with our message, but Republicans just flood the airwaves and the media with their message because they outspend us almost 10 to 1. THE RECAST: Do you think that the Democratic Party in Florida should be receiving more funding from the national Democratic Party?
| 
| HERNÁNDEZ: Because for so many decades, Florida has become a Republican state or has been represented by Republicans, I think that there are people that have lost hope in Florida. But we haven't [given up hope]. There is a strong group of communities that want to see [things get] better for all Floridians. We believe that we are that linchpin and that we're going to make a difference. THE RECAST: At a recent campaign party, you said that you had been a special education teacher, that your major is in "emotionally handicapped education" and therefore you know how to deal with a "dysfunctional legislature." Some people have taken offense to these comments . How do you respond?
| 
Karla Hernández leaves after speaking with the media about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sept. 15, 2022, in Doral, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | HERNÁNDEZ: They were taken out of context, because first of all, I would never be offensive to a student or even to my colleagues, who have sacrificed so much every single day to do the work that they do. It was never a comparison between children and adults. The comparison was about my skill sets. It is a dysfunctional legislature. We have a legislature that isn't representing people. Was it intended to be funny? Yes. Was it taken out of context? Absolutely. I advocated and spent 19 years of my life doing this work. And it's a disservice that anybody would try to [take the remarks out of context], but it is politics. I've been called multiple things on this campaign trail. It's part of the game. THE RECAST: You grew up in Hialeah. How has that perspective informed your politics? HERNÁNDEZ: Hialeah has a very unique place in the state of Florida. It is probably — if not the most — one of the most Hispanic communities in Florida. I had a genuine immigrant story. My parents were both immigrants, I was born and raised here. I had a rooster. [laughter] If you drive through Hialeah, you'll see that there are roosters and chickens everywhere.
| 
Courtesy of the Charlie Crist campaign | | My dad was a farmworker — cut sugar cane, picked tomatoes. Then he became a carpenter, and he became very active in unions, making sure that we uplift communities, that we support each other, that we do good for our neighbors. I shared my room and my bed with my grandmother, and that shaped a lot of who I am and why I do what I do. My grandmother was very giving. Anybody who came to the house, she always offered them something to eat, and she would always say, "Where three can eat, four can eat." And even though she had very little, she always collected things and she shipped them back to Honduras, because she knew that people in Honduras had much less than she had. When I was in high school, I learned that my grandmother did not get an opportunity to go to school, so she didn't know how to read or write. And that impacted me a lot because I remember how she would tell me, "Mijita , you have to go to school, you have to do your homework." She was always motivating me to do better to go to school, to go to college, because those are all opportunities that she didn't get. She was 9 years old when she started working in somebody's kitchen. She knew what it was to need and to not have. And she inspired me in so many ways, and when I decided that I wanted to become a teacher, it was because of her. WATCH: Hernández wants to revoke Fla. Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez's 'Latina card'
|  | THE RECAST: You wouldn't be the first Latina lieutenant governor in Florida, as the current lieutenant governor is Cuban. But according to your campaign, you would be the first Central American to serve as lieutenant governor in Tallahassee. Do you think that specific perspective is particularly important at this moment? HERNÁNDEZ: I think that it's not the location of my heritage. I think it's the fact that I am a Latina, that I'm a mom, that I'm a teacher. I don't think that nationality had really much to do with it. But I have a very diverse background because of where I grew up. I'll tell you this: I know that technically she's considered a Latina, but I think that her Latina card should be revoked. The moment that she said she was OK, as a Cuban American, with putting Cubans on a bus and sending them to Delaware, which is where President Biden lives — by the way, the compassionate president that came over here and saved us, because he's the one that's provided us all the [hurricane aid] resources that we have right now — she said that before I was launched as lieutenant governor. She is a cubana arrepentida [ashamed of being Cuban]. You don't do that. You don't lose touch. She's completely out of touch with her community. So, I like to think that I'm the only Latina running for this seat. And really, that I represent all of our issues, all of our communities. I'm an American, but I'm very proud of my Latino heritage and very proud of everything that we represent.
◆◆◆
Alright, here are some reading, watching and listening recommendations to keep you in the know this Halloweekend. WATCH: The latest episode of "The POLITICO Show" on Snapchat focuses on Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican millennial running for Congress.
|  | Barbados' Second Independence — The Atlantic's Hannah Giorgis explores why Barbados' move to sever ties with the British crown has the entire Caribbean watching . Eduardo C. Corral weaves yearning and pain to striking effect in his poem, " Córdoba ." " Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues " — a new tapestry of the icon's life drawing on a trove of archival material including private recordings — premieres tonight on Apple TV+.
|  | Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson takes the lead in the DC film " Black Adam ," out now. The star-studded cast breaks down Reddit fan theories with Vanity Fair here . (*Warning: Potential spoilers included.*) Don't miss " Sanctuary City ," showing at the Arena Stage in D.C. until Nov. 27. It's the brainchild of Pulitzer winner Martyna Majok and centers on two young Dreamers in an unwelcoming America. Rihanna is FINALLY back! Her first solo single in six years, " Lift Me Up ," will appear in Marvel's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," coming in November. She reportedly got involved to honor the late actor Chadwick Boseman. Hasan Minhaj and Phoebe Robinson discuss boundaries and comedy as an agent of change in this fascinating — and, obviously, funny — conversation . BTS' Jin has us in our feels with new solo single " The Astronaut ," co-written with Coldplay.
|  |
TikTok of the Day: Big brother duties
|  | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment