Tina Vidal-Duart, the CEO of CDR Health, is a Republican mega-donor cashing in on separating families and torturing our immigrant neighbors at the Everglades Detention Camp. She and her husband Carlos Duart have raked in hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars through no-bid contracts– with zero transparency and zero accountability.
After cutting big checks to Ron DeSantis, he rewarded her with a seat on the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees. That appointment required Senate confirmation. Our elected officials had a choice.
For more information on the Duarts, visit our-cash.com.
Transcript | Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith on the Senate Floor 02/04/26
Senators, I rise in opposition to the confirmation of Tina Vidal-Duart.
The companies that are run by Ms. Vidal-Duart have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from the construction and operation of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz detention facility, a disgraceful detention camp, built at a grossly inflated cost to taxpayers, all to her benefit, where according to an NBC6 Miami news investigation, just one in four detainees have what ICE considers a criminal convictions.
So senators, while families are suffering, while constituents called our offices in total disbelief of how their loved ones had been unjustly taken by the state and federal authorities, subject to inhumane conditions and poor healthcare services provided by her companies,
Ms. Vidal-Duart was cashing in on all of this cruelty.
And she was able to do all of this thanks to nearly $2 million in contributions she made to political action committees supporting our governor and the Republican Party of Florida.
This is textbook definition of pay to play.
All told, CCD Maguire and its affiliated companies racked up contracts over the last several years valued at more than $537 million, all taxpayer funds.
Add to that her appointment to the Board of Trustees for one of Florida’s top public universities, FAU.
That is priceless.
Her most recent related board experience, she served as the registered agent for the Hope Florida Foundation during the same period when the organization was used as a vessel to launder $10 million in Medicaid money for the purpose of funding political ads in one of the largest state government scandals in recent history.
Senators, this excessive grift and mismanagement of the Hope Florida Foundation, all at the expense of our community and taxpayers, is just too much.
I don’t feel like it’s responsible public service. It feels gross, and we should reject the Senate confirmation.
Thank you, Senators.
