Annette Joanne Taddeo-Goldstein (née Taddeo ; born April 7, 1967) is an American politician, businesswoman, and

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost ...

who served as a member of the

Florida Senate The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the C ...

from the 40th district from 2017 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, she was an unsuccessful candidate for several elections starting in 2008. She was

Charlie Crist Charles Joseph Crist Jr. ( ; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. represen ...

's running mate in the

2014 Florida gubernatorial election The 2014 Florida gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the List of Governors of Florida, Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Florida. The incumbent Republican Party of Florida, Republican, Rick Scott, ran for reelecti ...

. She was formerly a Democratic candidate in the

2022 Florida gubernatorial election The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide,Citations for Lands ...

, but withdrew to run for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in Florida's 27th congressional district to unsuccessfully challenge incumbent María Elvira Salazar. In 2024, she ran for Miami-Dade County Clerk and was defeated by incumbent Republican

Juan Fernandez-Barquin Juan Alfonso Fernandez-Barquin (born March 6, 1983) is an American attorney, politician, and professor who has served as the Miami-Dade County clerk of court, Clerk and Comptroller since 2023. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Rep ...

Early life and education

Taddeo was born in

Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja () is a municipality and city in Colombia, located on the shore of the Magdalena River, in the western part of the department of Santander. It is home to the largest oil refinery in the country, under direct management of ECOP ...

, Colombia, to an

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

father and Colombian mother. Her early life was spent in Colombia until she moved to live with family friends in

Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, at the age of 17. She graduated from the

University of North Alabama The University of North Alabama (UNA) is a public university in Florence, Alabama, United States. It is the state's oldest university. Occupying a campus in a residential section of Florence, UNA is located within a four-city area that also ...

with a degree in commercial Spanish. Shortly after, she moved to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. In 1995, Taddeo started a translation business, now called LanguageSpeak.

Career

Taddeo entered politics in 2008 when she ran against Congresswoman

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ( ; ; born July 15, 1952) is an American politician and lobbyist from Miami, Florida, who represented from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She was Chairwoman ...

for

Florida's 18th Congressional District Florida's 18th congressional district is an congressional district, electoral district for the U.S. Congress, located in the Florida Heartland. In the 2020 United States redistricting cycle, 2020 redistricting cycle, the district was redrawn to ...

, which then included parts of coastal

Miami-Dade Miami-Dade County () is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most-populous count ...

and the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

. Taddeo was unopposed in the Democratic primary but lost to Ros-Lehtinen in the general election, 58% to 42%. Two years later, Taddeo ran for an open seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission. She placed third in the nonpartisan primary, garnering 21%. Taddeo remained active in local Democratic politics, and in December 2012 was elected chair of the county's Democratic Executive Committee. As county party chair, she organized support for successful Democratic candidates in

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

, and other local elections. She also led an effort for Democrats to compete in every local

State House State House or statehouse may refer to: Buildings *Aso Villa or State House, the official residence of the President of Nigeria *Government House, Dominica or The State House, the official residence of the President of Dominica * State House, Bar ...

election in 2014. In the end, only two of the seats within the county lacked a Democratic candidate that year, the fewest since 1984.

2014 Florida gubernatorial election

In July 2014, gubernatorial candidate

, who had previously served as governor as a Republican, named Taddeo as his running mate. The Crist-Taddeo ticket lost the general election to incumbent Republican governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

and lieutenant governor

Carlos López-Cantera Carlos Lopez-Cantera (born December 29, 1973) is an American politician who served as the 19th lieutenant governor of Florida from 2014 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Lopez-Cantera represented the 11 ...

, 48.1 to 47.1%.

2016 congressional campaign

Taddeo ran for Congress again in 2016, in the 26th district, based in southern Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys. She lost the Democratic primary to former Congressman Joe Garcia, 51.3 to 48.7%. Garcia went on to lose the general election to the incumbent, Republican

Carlos Curbelo Carlos Luis Curbelo (born March 1, 1980) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 26th congressional district from 2015 to 2019. In 2018, he was narrowly defeated for re-election by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-P ...

. During the campaign, some of Taddeo's secret campaign documents, some of which highlighted her weaknesses as a candidate, were made public. It later came out that Taddeo was one of several Democratic House candidates targeted by Russian hackers, and the documents were stolen from the

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises funds and organizes races in ...

and released to reporters and bloggers in order to undermine Democratic campaigns in competitive districts.

Florida Senate

In September 2017, Taddeo was elected in a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

for Florida's Senate District 40. The election was called to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Republican senator Frank Artiles. Taddeo won the primary election against former state representative and Miami-Dade School Board Member Ana Rivas Logan, 71 to 29%. Taddeo defeated Republican state representative José Félix Díaz in the general election, 51 to 47%. She was re-elected in 2018.

2022 Florida gubernatorial election

In October 2021, Taddeo announced she would run for the Democratic primary in the

. She opposed

, whom she ran alongside in his 2014 campaign for governor. In June 2022, Taddeo announced that she would exit the gubernatorial primary and would instead run in the 2022 Florida's 27th congressional district race. Taddeo defeated

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...

in the primary election on August 23 to win the Democratic nomination, and unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican María Elvira Salazar in the November general election.

2022 congressional campaign

Taddeo won the primary in August against Miami City Commissioner

and progressive activist Angel Montalvo. Despite trying to win over Latin voters in the historically Democratic Miami-Dade County and make Florida's 27th congressional district competitive, Taddeo lost by 34,634 votes to incumbent

Maria Elvira Salazar Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

Personal life

Taddeo is married to Eric Goldstein, a Miami psychologist. They have a daughter, Sofia. Annette also has twin stepdaughters from her husband's previous marriage. Taddeo was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

but converted to

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

in her 20s.

Electoral history

Early elections, 2008–16

Florida Senate, 2017–18

Post-Senate career, 2022–

References

External links

Annette Taddeo for Congress
campaign website
Senator Annette Taddeo
official Senate website {{DEFAULTSORT:Taddeo, Annette 1967 births 21st-century American women politicians American people of Italian descent American politicians of Colombian descent Colombian Jews Colombian people of Italian descent Candidates in the 2008 United States elections Candidates in the 2010 United States elections Candidates in the 2014 United States elections Candidates in the 2016 United States elections Candidates in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections Colombian emigrants to the United States Converts to Judaism Democratic Party Florida state senators Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Jewish state legislators in Florida Jewish American women in politics Living people People from Barrancabermeja Politicians from Miami University of North Alabama alumni Women state legislators in Florida 21st-century members of the Florida Legislature