Annette Taddeo announces run for Florida Democratic Party chair on TikTok
MIAMI (FLV) – Former congressional candidate Annette Taddeo announced her bid to be the Florida Democratic Party’s next chair off the heels of a GOP midterm blowout.
Taddeo, who lost to Republican Maria Salazar in the 27th District by nearly 15 points, said the party is at a “critical juncture” and must “completely rebuild.”
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis blew out Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points, and the state GOP gained supermajorities in both houses of the legislature. 2023 is also the first time in decades there are no statewide elected Democrats.
Taddeo made the full announcement on TikTok.
“After the 2022 midterms, I received many calls asking me to run for chair of the Florida Democratic Party. I have been having conversations all across the state. After much reflection, I’m ready,” she said. “We must completely rebuild and reimagine our party from the bottom up, rebuilding a fully functional Florida Democratic Party that is grounded in our shared values and we need to rebuild our grassroots infrastructure, totally rebuild it.”
She pointed to the Democrats’ steep party registration disadvantage, which now totals in the several hundreds of thousands and has shown little to no sign of narrowing.
“We must regain our voter registration advantage, have accurate voter information and organize and motivate our grassroots army of volunteers,” Taddeo said.
She called for an “aggressive year-round multilingual earned media effort” to push back on what she calls “GOP extremism.”
“And we must engage our grassroots activists, communities of colors and young voters to have a real seat at the decision making table and empower them at all levels of our organization across all 67 counties so we can be present all the time,” she said.
“I refuse to give up on Florida because when we fail, we fail our most vulnerable and our next generation, I know a better and brighter future is possible for Florida because Florida can and will be one again.”
In her race against Salazar in Miami, both tailored their messages toward the area’s large Hispanic population.
Salazar’s first term as congresswoman began in 2021. She is a former five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the field. Salazar has spoken strongly against socialism as her Cuban parents fled Fidel Castro’s regime for the United States.
Taddeo spent much time in politics as the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair from 2013-2016 and served in the state Senate from 2017 to 2022. Taddeo and her family fled Colombia to the United States.
Taddeo has been criticized throughout the campaign for her ties to socialistic groups and ideas. One of the ads called out Taddeo for “huddling” with the Miami chapter of a socialist group.
A 2018 Instagram post from the Miami-Dade County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America thanks Taddeo for “coming through to support.” The GOP also called out Taddeo for her past comments calling on Florida to lockdown in March of 2020.
