Herald recommends: Battle-tested Democrat is ready to face U.S. Rep. Salazar in District 27 | Editorial

All four congressional representatives from Greater Miami are facing primary challengers. Here is our recommendation in this southeast Miami-Dade County.

Congressional District 27

Democratic primary

Three Democrats are running in the Aug. 23 primary, seeking to unseat Republican Maria Elvira Salazar in U.S. House District 27.

This district covers southeast Miami-Dade County, from downtown Miami and Little Havana south to Key Biscayne, Coral Gables and Cutler Bay. It offers Democrats the best chance of flipping a seat in South Florida. Republicans have a one-point voter-registration advantage.

The Democratic nominee will have a tough race in November. Voters should pick someone who’s been battle-tested and can build a coalition.

The Democrats facing off are state Sen. Annette Taddeo, Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and Angel Montalvo, a Miami resident who lists his occupation as farmer, baker and gig worker. Montalvo, 29, said he’s running as “a working person” who has experienced Miami-Dade’s lack of affordable housing. But as a self-professed Democratic socialist, he would struggle to connect with the large contingent of Cuban Americans in the district. No matter who the Democratic nominee is, Republicans will try to attach the “socialist” label to them.

Taddeo, 55, the founder of LanguageSpeak, a translation business, has the best shot at countering that because she’s done it before. In 2017, she became the first Latina Democrat elected to the Florida State Senate, flipping a Republican-held seat. Republicans tried to smear her a communist sympathizer and link her to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. That strategy didn’t work. When she was a teenager, the FARC, a Marxist guerrilla, kidnapped her father, who fought for the United States in World War II. Her family was forced to leave Colombia for this country.

Taddeo is used to fighting battles as a member of the minority party in the Florida Senate — a dynamic she potentially could face again in D.C., if the GOP retakes the U.S. House. She has emerged as one of the strongest voices opposing GOP policies. That role includes building relationships to kill bad legislation, she told the Herald Editorial Board. She worked behind the scenes, for example, to derail a Republican “union-busting bill” to prohibit unions from deducting monthly dues from members’ paychecks. She said she’s also proud of passing legislation that changed how the state develops individual education plans for students with disabilities.

Taddeo said one of the biggest issues facing District 27, and the nation, is the threat to democracy embodied by the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and Republicans’ unwillingness to investigate what happened. She called out Miami Republicans who decry socialist authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but remain mum about the growing influence of the Proud Boys, which played a prominent role on Jan. 6, in local GOP politics.

Taddeo has also been outspoken against her own party on Latin American affairs. She criticized the Biden administration earlier this year for removing the FARC from the U.S. terrorist list.

Taddeo ran as Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial running mate in 2014. They lost to then-Gov. Rick Scott. She ran for governor this year but dropped out after it became clear she didn’t have the name recognition and money to stay in the Democratic primary against Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

Taddeo recently faced questions from CBS4 host Jim Defede about campaign donations her political committee, Fight Back Florida, received from groups linked to the powerful sugar industry and Florida Power & Light. She fumbled her response, initially denying she received money from one of those groups, the Associated Industries of Florida. Taddeo voted against a bill FPL helped write that would’ve curbed the expansion of solar energy in the Sunshine State. But she voted for another bill, considered a concession to sugar farmers, that environmentalists say would’ve prioritized agriculture over Everglades restoration.

Russell, 49, is serving his second term on the Miami City Commission. Before that, he was a neighborhood organizer who became civically engaged when the city shut down a park near his home, Merrie Christmas Park in Coconut Grove, because officials found out the soil was contaminated with heavy metals.

He said his accomplishments as a city commissioner include helping the city pass a bond referendum for the construction of affordable housing and to address sea-level rise. He also said he got funding for the renovation of old homes in what is now Little Bahamas, a historic Black community in Coconut Grove. He helped Grove residents in their opposition to the city’s redistricting plan this year that split the Black West Grove into two districts. He also claims credit for the city’s climate-change initiatives, which include a requirement that high-rises measure and report their efficiency for water use and electricity.

Russell said he’s running for Congress because Miami has lacked a federal partner on issues such as affordable housing, which he said is the biggest challenge facing his constituents. Before running in the District 27, Russell was a longshot candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Like Taddeo, Russell has also had to operate in the minority in the Republican-controlled and mercurial Miami Commission, though it is a nonpartisan body. We applaud him for staying above the fray when some of his fellow commissioners attack each other and the public.

In the end, “It’s going to take a battle-tested person,” in Taddeo’s words, to win back District 27. Her experience running tough races and in the Florida Senate make her best qualified.

The Herald Editorial Board recommends ANNETTE TADDEO in the U.S. House District 27 Democratic primary.

NOTE: Maria Elvira Salazar, the Republican incumbent, has a primary against Frank Polo. Her campaign declined an interview with the Editorial Board until before the November general elections. We couldn’t reach Polo. Therefore, we will not recommend in the GOP primary.

This story was originally published August 7, 2022 at 9:45 AM.