Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nuñez walked under a giant Cuban flag that drapes the facade of the historic San Carlos Institute on Duval Street, when she visited Key West on Aug. 26.
Nunez, who is of Cuban descent, is running for reelection as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ running mate.
“Although gubernatorial candidates are not required to have a running mate for the primaries, the state constitution requires a joint candidacy for the general election,” states Ballotpedia.org.
Nuñez met for nearly an hour with a small group of Key West residents, business owners and community leaders at the building that is “considered to be the cradle of Cuba’s independence movement,” states the San Carlos website.
Topics discussed by the politically friendly group included DeSantis’ commitment to keeping Florida open during the COVID pandemic, the increased parental involvement in schools that the pandemic prompted, windstorm insurance rates, the new term limits imposed on school board members by DeSantis and the changing demographics of the Florida Keys due to second and third homeowners.
The invited group included restaurateurs Bill Lay and Darren Horan, who was recently elected to the county school board with DeSantis’ endorsement.
“Yeah, we were one for two here in Monroe County, with regard to the school board,” Nuñez said, referring to DeSantis’ endorsement of Upper Keys candidate Alexandria Suarez, who lost to the incumbent and non-governor-endorsed Sue Woltanski in the nonpartisan school board race.
School board member Mindy Conn and her husband, retired Army colonel Abe Conn, were also at the gathering with Nuñez.
“There wasn’t much we here in Monroe had to change. We’ve never taught critical race theory and have always had great parental involvement,” Conn said, adding, “One of the difficulties with the new term limits is that there aren’t a lot of people who want to run for school board, and I think we’ve now limited the amount of time that a good school board member can serve.”
Attorney David Paul Horan commented on the changing demographics in the Keys, where absent owners of second and third homes are “hurting the sense of community,” he said.
Tax collector Sam Steele was also present, along with Key West Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Robert Goltz and Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg and San Carlos Institute director Rafael Penalver.
Immigration, abortion, gun control and the 2024 presidential election were not mentioned.
