Karla Hernandez-Mats Calls DeSantis a "Dictator" in Online Ad

On Friday, The Floridian detailed a Spanish-language radio ad by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) targeting Karla Hernandez-Mats, Charlie Crist's nominee for Lt. Governor in the upcoming election. Sunday evening, Mats retaliated with an online ad of her own, calling DeSantis a "dictator."

"Come join us for episode 1 of Chalkboard Talk! Today's word of the day is "dictator." #SchoolingDeSantis," the tweet reads.

The ad itself features Mats standing in front of a blackboard, alluding to her teaching career. "Good morning, and welcome to this edition of Chalkboard Talk with Mrs. Hernandez," Mats begins. "Today we're going to use some best practices in teaching and we're going to unpack some vocabulary words."

"Today's word of the day is dictator," she continues as she pulls out a poster with the definition and places it on the board. "Dictator: a person who gives orders and behaves as if they have complete power. A person who behaves in an autocratic way."

"And we have seen many dictators in our communities. We have seen dictators in Cuba, and Nicaragua, and in Venezuela." One must admit there is a certain irony in Mats describing Cuba's dictatorship negatively, when she herself seemingly expressed sympathy for the death of Fidel Castro in 2016.

"So if we use it in a sentence," she continues, "we can say, "in Florida, we have a wannabe dictator, Ron DeSantis. He removes people from office who disagree with him, he limits voting power of minorities." Dictator. Synonyms are autocrat, tyrant, and oppressor." Mats emphasizes these synonyms by holding a small card featuring the words up to the camera.

Her ad concludes with, "so if you care about issues, if you care about having your rights, if you care and you don't want to have a dictator in Florida, we need you to vote. Remember to vote blue and vote for our issues, vote up and down the ballot, vote Crist-Hernandez on our before November the 8th. Hashtag Schooling DeSantis."

The Twitter page DeSantis War Room was quick to respond that if DeSantis "were a real dictator, you wouldn't be allowed to post a video like this."

"If @RonDeSantisFL were a real dictator, you wouldn't be allowed to post a video like this. Fortunately #KarlaMarx, you have freedom of speech, which includes the freedom to post cringe," DeSantis War Room tweeted.