Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist Picks Running Mate in Re-election Bid

Charlie Crist announced his running mate in a campaign event Thursday.

“I appreciate the opportunity to introduce a great Floridian to you and announce to you our running mate — my running mate Annette Taddeo,” Crist said at the event in Miami’s Wynwood.

Taddeo is a familiar face in Miami politics.

The current chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, she recently ran for elected office in 2012 in a failed bid to unseat longtime Little Havana Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

“As a working mom, a small business owner and a proud Floridian, I am thrilled at the opportunity to serve as lieutenant governor of the state that has given me so many opportunities,” Taddeo said at the announcement.

“I’ve lived the American dream and I want to ensure everyone in Florida has a fair shot to do the same thing.”

Taddeo is founder of LanguageSpeak, a language translation company based in Miami’s Brickell business district.

She is running as Annette Taddeo, not using her married surname “Taddeo-Goldstein.” Taddeo has been married to Eric Goldstein, a South Miami clinical psychologist, since 2000. The couple raise three children, two from a prior marriage of Goldstein, in suburban Miami-Dade County.

Miami-Dade County, the state’s most populous county, is leaning more Democratic in recent elections and was a crucial county in the re-election of President Barack Obama.

According to The Miami Herald, the choice of a running mate before Crist’s party primary against Nan Rich is unusual for a political campaign.