Former Florida state Senator Annette Taddeo announced Monday she is running to unseat Republican Blaise Ingoglia as Chief Financial Officer, hoping to become the first Democrat elected to the position in two decades. Taddeo made her announcement at Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights, the same location where she launched her successful 2017 Senate campaign that made her the first Latina Democrat elected to the Florida Senate. She released a campaign video alongside the announcement and spoke to a small group that included many members of the press.
At the church event, Taddeo criticized Ingoglia, whom Governor Ron DeSantis appointed CFO in July 2025, for failing to serve as a watchdog for Florida taxpayers. She pointed to the Everglades-based immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz, which costs Florida taxpayers upwards of 1 billion dollars in service contracts, several awarded to DeSantis donors. She also highlighted insurance rates rising in Florida at roughly double the national rate and referenced the Hope Florida scandal, in which the DeSantis administration directed millions in Medicaid settlement dollars to the Governor's wife's nonprofit, which later rerouted the money to political committees aimed at defeating ballot measures supporting abortion and recreational adult-use cannabis. Taddeo characterized Ingoglia as a lapdog for the Governor rather than a watchdog for Floridians and criticized him for not auditing millions of dollars in no-bid contracts awarded to donors, which she said is required by Florida law.
Ingoglia has spent months touring the state highlighting what he describes as wasteful local government spending. His efforts have been used to justify recently passed legislation to slash homestead property taxes, which will require 60 percent approval on the November ballot and would increase homestead property tax exemptions for residents to 250,000 dollars by 2028. Taddeo framed this initiative as an attempt by Republican policymakers to convince voters that the party has addressed cost-of-living issues after controlling Florida's government for three decades.
Taddeo, born in Colombia, fled to the United States after terrorists kidnapped her father. She won a special election for Florida Senate in September 2017 and retained her seat in the 2018 general election. She ran unsuccessfully for Miami-Dade Clerk and Comptroller in 2024, losing to Republican incumbent Juan Fernandez-Barquin. However, Taddeo must first win a Democratic primary against Earle Ford, a U.S. Army veteran, before facing Ingoglia in the general election. A late-April poll commissioned by Ruth's List Florida found she would lead Ingoglia in a head-to-head matchup for CFO.