MIAMI (AP) — State Sen. Annette Taddeo announced Monday that she’s leaving the Democratic primary for Florida governor to run for a U.S. House seat in South Florida.
Taddeo said she will run for Florida’s 27th congressional district, which includes all or part of Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Kendall in Miami-Dade County.
The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who took office after winning her 2020 election. Taddeo faces Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and community organizer Angel Montalvo in the Aug. 23 Democratic primary.
“Families in Miami need a representative in Congress who will stand up for them, hold Washington politicians accountable and make sure we finally tackle issues like the cost of living, gun violence, and defending a woman’s right to choose,” Taddeo said in a statement. “I’m a small business owner and a mother with a daughter in Miami-Dade Public Schools so I live with these issues every single day.”
Taddeo, 55, is the founder and CEO of LanguageSpeak, which offers translation services in more than 240 languages. She was born in Colombia to an American father and Colombian mother and spent the first 17 years of her life in the South American country.
Taddeo first ran for office in 2008, losing to then-incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen. She ran for Congress again in 2016, losing a close primary to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia. She won her state Senate seat in a 2017 special election for a district a Republican won by 10 percentage points the previous election.
With Taddeo leaving the gubernatorial race, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, who previously served as Florida governor as a Republican, and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried remain the strongest candidates in the Democratic primary.
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