Charlie Crist hasn't even won the Democratic primary yet, but he's already picked his general election running mate. Crist tapped Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, a Miami businesswoman who has made a few unsuccessful runs at office before and now is the chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democrats and vice chair of the state party.
With opponent Rick Scott tapping Carlos López-Cantera as his Lieutenant Governor earlier this year, that means both Scott and Crist will be running with Hispanic politicians from Miami on the ballot.
Taddeo-Goldstein was born in Colombia to a native mother and American father, and spent her first 17 years in South America. She moved to Miami and became the founder and CEO of LanguageSpeak, a translation services company.
She first came on to the local political scene in 2008 to challenge incumbent Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in a congressional race. Though she didn't win, she did do better than many initially expected. She unsuccessfully ran for County Commission in 2010, and flirted with a congressional rematch in 2012.
Taddeo-Goldstein may not have any previous personal electoral success, but she does check off a lot of boxes for the Crist campaign: she's Hispanic, a woman, a working mother (her daughter is four years old), married to a Jewish man, a business leader and a lifelong Democrat. It brings a lot of balance to Crist's resume as a former Republican, lifelong politician white dude without children of his own.
The Democratic primary is still six weeks away, but Crist is expected easily win against his opponent Nan Rich.
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