All Eyes on Fran Tate in Tampa District 5 Runoff

TAMPA — Thirteen candidates qualified for the special election to fill the District 5 seat on the Tampa City Council — fourteen if you count write-in candidate Jose Vazquez. But just three of those candidate earned more than half the votes.

Of the 5,411 votes cast in the election, 2,172, or 40%, were cast for the winners, Tom Scott and Naya Young. When you add in the third place candidate, Fran Tate, that total jumps to 2,717 votes, or just over 50% of all votes cast. That puts Tate in an interesting position as the runoff election kicks off between Scott and Young.

Tom DeGeorge — who trailed Tate by just 23 votes — has already thrown his support behind Naya Young. If Tate does the same, Young could start the runoff with a coalition of voters larger than Scott’s total. On the other hand, if Tate supports Scott, she would solidify his lead and turn Young into more of a dark horse candidate than an equal contender with Scott.

The subtext in this runoff is that Scott is a longtime ally of Bob Buckhorn, who served as Tampa Mayor from 2011 through 2019. Scott also ran for mayor in 2011, but endorsed Buckhorn after failing to reach the runoff. Buckhorn then supported Scott in his run to get back on the Hillsborough County Commission in 2016.

“Tom and I have been friends for 25 years,” said Buckhorn in 2016. “I’ve supported him in every race he’s been in.”

Young meanwhile is a newcomer with no sign of support from the Buckhorn/Castor establishment in Tampa. She impressed on the campaign trail with her command of city issues, and ran a lean, grassroots campaign.

Fran Tate’s choice of which candidate to support, if either, may be the first sign of whether Scott can consolidate overwhelming support as the establishment candidate, or whether there is an appetite for change within Tampa’s District 5.

After Tate, eyes will likely turn to other candidates with significant support in this election, like Ariel Amirah Danley and Juawana Colbert, and to other community leaders. This special election may represent a rare chance to check in with Tampa voters between election cycles.