With the 2026 midterm elections less than two weeks away, attacks on both Democratic and Republican congressional candidates in Florida's 22nd District continue to escalate. Pia Dandiya, along with the help of the House Majority PAC, has directly targeted businessman Casey Askar's strongest attribute- his business acumen, calling the former U.S. Marine a "shady" and "corrupt" business owner.
Askar has also taken a pound of flesh out of Dandiya, referring to her as a "Socialist" who supports the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) education initiative that Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-led state legislature have defeated legislatively.
Askar has branded her "DEI Dandiya."
DEI is very unpopular among Republican voters as well as with many Independent voters.
Dandiya recently stated that she does not support DEI education practices, but after digging into Askar's claim that she is in fact, an advocate for DEI, it's clear that Dandiya not only supports the controversial initiative; she also appears to have taught and supervised various DEI educational practices when she was a principal in New York City.
Dandiya has scrubbed her campaign website, removing her past affiliation with Teach for America, a non-profit organization that pushes numerous Progressive political initiatives including DEI.
The Early Years
According to Dandiya's campaign website, the former teacher and lobbyist began her career in education at Teach For America (TFA), a nonprofit that recruits higher education students and professors to teach at "under-resourced" public schools. Harvard University Crimson newspaper is one of several online publications that still outline Dandiya's 'Teach For America' past.
Dandiya was a teacher who also instructed other teachers during her career at Teach For America. According to the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), TFA has been heavily involved in teaching DEI for over 12 years, covering the years that Dandiya was an active member.
"TFA’s senior managing director for org-wide knowledge management shared insights from this work as part of an APQC roundtable. She discussed the steps TFA took to understand how KM can support DEI goals, what the organization has learned to date, and how it is operationalizing DEI principles within KM." (Source: APQC)
As noted previously, Dandiya has scrubbed any mention of Teach for America from her website, but we were able capture the reference before it was removed. Here is the original "Meet Pia" section of the campaign website-
During her term as teacher at the Democracy Prep Harlem High School and in her subsequent tenure as the school's principal, Dandiya was neck-deep in DEI instruction.
The school openly promotes its "Restorative Practices" initiatives that fully incorporate DEI principles throughout.
The Communities for Restorative Concepts emphasizes the deep-rooted, inextricable ties between "Restorative Practices" and DEI.
"The concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion are embedded within restorative practices, which proceed from the belief that everyone holds a piece of the truth. C4RJ embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion as the way to fully realize our values," states the group on their website.
DEI Dandiya
Askar's assertion that Dandiya is really a DEI educator and school principal could easily be called be called baseless without any substantive or concrete proof- so what is Askar's proof?
We reached out to his campaign for comment and to ask about their sourcing, but we didn't receive a response.
So, we decided to research it ourselves- and voilĂ , we found a source directly tying Dandiya and her former school to DEI.
According to a "Renewal Recommendation Report" for the aforementioned Democracy Prep school that was prepared by The State University of New York's (SUNY) Charter Schools Institute, during her tenure as principal, DEI was deeply woven into the curriculum.
"Democracy Prep Endurance will also commit, along with the network, to becoming an anti-racist organization and will systemically apply a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion across all practices," states the 2017 report.
Dandiya is listed as the school principal during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years.
The Communist Party of America defends DEI and contends that "DEI is not Negotiable."
Socialism 101?
Another one of Askar's claims is that Dandiya supports socialist education reforms. Remember- Socialism and Communism are close relatives.
On this claim, we didn't have to dig very deep- Dandiya openly supports Universal Pre-K education, but so do the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The DSA has outlined its full-throated endorsement of Universal Pre-K.
"Universal preschool is a fitting plank in the socialist policy arsenal because it’s a public solution to a demonstrated market failure...Universal preschool is also a socialist-feminist cause, because its low-wage workforce is overwhelmingly female, and because when families can’t afford preschool, it’s most often mothers who stay home, sacrificing earnings, education, and career."—DSA
The DSA demands that governments provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.
The 2026 midterm election will be held on November 3.
This district went from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up," and now it is back to Lean Republican."
