Annette Taddeo

Taddeo was born in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, to an Italian-American father and Colombian mother. Her early life was spent in Colombia until she moved to live with family friends in Huntsville, Alabama, at the age of 17. She graduated from the University of North Alabama with a degree in commercial Spanish. Shortly after, she moved to Miami. In 1995, Taddeo started a translation business, now called LanguageSpeak.[1]

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.[1][2]

Taddeo entered politics in 2008 when she ran against Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Florida's 18th Congressional District, which then included parts of coastal Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys. Taddeo was unopposed in the Democratic primary but lost to Ros-Lehtinen in the general election, 58 to 42%.[3]

Two years later, Taddeo ran for an open seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission.[4] She placed third in the nonpartisan primary, garnering 21%.[5]

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, Homestead, and other local elections. She also led an effort for Democrats to compete in every local State House election in 2014. In the end, only two of the seats within the county lacked a Democratic candidate that year, the fewest since 1984.[1]

In July 2014, gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, who had previously served as governor as a Republican, named Taddeo as his running mate.[6] The Crist-Taddeo ticket lost the general election to incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott and Lieutenant Governor Carlos López-Cantera, 48.1 to 47.1%.[7]

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%.[8][9] Garcia went on to lose the general election to the incumbent, Republican Carlos Curbelo. 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 and released to reporters and bloggers in order to undermine Democratic campaigns in competitive districts.[10]

In September 2017, Taddeo was elected in a special election 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%.[11] Taddeo defeated Republican State Representative José Félix Díaz in the general election, 51 to 47%.[12][13]

• Campaign website
• Senate website