Sarasota Democrats struggle to field candidate in key county race

The last Democrat to win a seat on the Sarasota County Commission was a man named Bill Carey in 1966, when gasoline was 30 cents a gallon and “Last Train to Clarksville” by The Monkees topped the charts.

Since then, Democrats have been so marginalized in county commission politics that the real contests are typically the August Republican primaries, which draw the money, attention and turnout.

But with President Donald Trump’s declining approval ratings amid an unpopular war in Iran, skyrocketing gas prices and mounting economic anxiety, national polling shows a favorable political environment for Democrats in 2026. That could extend all the way down-ballot to a county commission race. This year, the District 2 seat, viewed as Democrats’ best chance at breaking the streak, is back on the ballot.

The only problem is that no serious Democratic candidates are running in the race.

As the June 12 filing deadline looms, Democrats’ chances of finding a viable candidate — one with the name recognition and donor base to mount a competitive campaign — appear grim. The party is fighting headwinds of a historically conservative county, a lack of viable candidates with strong name recognition, and an open question of whether it should devote its resources to partisan races where it will always be the underdog.

District 2 is one of only two county commission seats on the ballot this year. Geographically, the smallest of the commission districts, it includes the bay, many of the beaches and the more left-leaning city of Sarasota. Although adding a lone Democrat to the county board would not give liberals anything close to a majority, it could become a key swing vote on issues related to development, the environment and spending.

Currently, the race features two Republicans: incumbent, first-term Commission Vice Chair Mark Smith, a resident of Siesta Key and an architect. His primary challenger is political newcomer Kristina Sargent, an attorney and former prosecutor who spent 15 years in the Army National Guard and moved to Sarasota from the Baltimore area in 2021.

Smith has raised twice as much as Sargent, as of the last campaign disclosures, but Sargent has so far outspent Smith and received a $10,000 boost in December from Lakewood Ranch developer Rex Jensen.

There is one Democrat who filed to run in District 2, Andrew Bevan, although it is unlikely he will even qualify for the race. Bevan has been in Charlotte County Jail since March after he allegedly called in a bomb threat to a Venice UPS facility. Court records indicate Bevan suffers from a history of mental illness. He would need to garner 583 signatures or pay a $6,543 qualifying fee by June 12, or his candidacy will be withdrawn.

Prominent Democrats like attorney Morgan Bentley have questioned whether spending money in that race is the best use of the party’s resources. Many Democratic, like Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, also said they have a positive impression of Smith, whom they see as a community-minded moderate and skeptic of development interests.

The other county commission race is for District 4, where Commissioner Joe Neunder will face former Sarasota police officer Jim DeNiro in the Republican primary. Julie London is the only other Democrat so far to qualify for that race. 

David Dean volunteered for the county Democratic Party for a few years before he became chair in 2025. He said he had spoken to 10 or so potential candidates to run for that seat. All of them declined.

When Dean took over as chair of the Sarasota County Democrats in 2025, the GOP dominated partisan positions across the county. Barbara Ford-Coates, the former Sarasota County Tax Collector and only Democrat to part the area’s red sea for decades, was ousted in the previous election by Republican Mike Moran. 

“The Democrat demographics are very favorable,” Dean said. “I know the incumbent (Smith) has a lot of cross-party appeal, but he does have a challenger, so I’ve really wanted to find somebody, as we can’t always predict the outcome of a primary.”

District 2 skews blue by Sarasota standards

District 2 stretches from the condo high-rise towers dotting Sarasota’s downtown through tourist hotspots like Siesta Key’s white sand beaches and up to the dorms of New College of Florida. It’s a vital area for the county’s business and tourism sectors. It also epitomizes the county’s wealth inequality, encompassing both the opulent mansions of Bird Key and the historically underserved Newtown neighborhood.

It also represents a small glimmer of hope for local Democrats.

Fredd Atkins, Sarasota’s first Black mayor, came within less than 1 percentage point of defeating Smith for the District 2 seat in 2022. Of the county’s five commission districts, it has the highest percentage of Democrats, according to data from the Supervisor of Elections office. Although then-Vice President Kamala Harris only won 16 of Sarasota County’s 103 voting precincts in the presidential election, nearly all of them were in District 2.

Morgan Bentley, a Democrat and managing partner with the law firm Bentley Goodrich Kison, said: “Democrats are going in the wrong direction in Sarasota County.”

During the past decade, the party has lost about 10,000 registered voters across the county, while Republicans have gained 35,000. The closest they are to bridging the gap is within the limits of the city of Sarasota.

The fall mirrors a complete collapse of the Democratic Party across Florida – once a purple swing state that twice voted for President Barack Obama and where Andrew Gillum came within half a percentage point of becoming governor. Democrats had the edge in state-wide registered voters for decades until 2021; now Republicans hold a massive 1.5 million voter advantage.

The local party itself — though not Democrats’ individual campaigns — has actually outraised its GOP counterpart by more than double during the first quarter of 2026, but where to best strategically spend that money has yet to be seen. 

Bentley, who is also the former chair of the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club, said the county commission is not the best use of Democrats’ resources. Instead, he believes their limited funds should go toward the Sarasota County School Board, where Democrats are not dragged down by a partisan ticket, or toward state Rep. Fiona McFarland’s seat, which has been somewhat competitive in the past few elections.

Democratically aligned school board candidates Tom Edwards and Liz Barker raised a combined $425,540 in their victorious 2024 campaigns. Bentley doubted a Democrat in a local partisan race could muster that kind of donor base, especially given the area’s wealthiest political funders are developers with ties to the Republican Party.

Weak bench, popular incumbent hamper Democrats

Registration woes are one major problem, but another is that there are few opportunities for Sarasota Democrats to make a name for themselves.

Historically, the only local races in which they have done well are non-partisan. Both left-leaning school board candidates won in 2024; all five Sarasota City Commissioners are registered Democrats. Without a pipeline to build name recognition and political capital, it can be difficult to run Democrats for county-wide office. The party was unable to find a candidate for any of the three county commission races in 2024.

Sebastian Martinez, president of the Sarasota Next Gen Dems and a Democratic State Committeeman, said his group is still dedicated to finding a Democrat to run before the filing deadline. 

Like Dean, he also reached out to potential candidates to make a run at the seat, including Justin Bloom, the founder of the Suncoast Waterkeeper environmental group. Bloom ultimately declined; he told Suncoast Searchlight he is not in a position to run for office right now.

Martinez said many of the prospective candidates he approached were worried about the impact of the race on their careers and families, citing the local animosity toward liberal politics.

Lucie Lapovsky, thepresident of the Longboat Key Democratic Club and former president of Mercy College, said it was “disappointing” that her party couldn’t field a candidate for District 2.

Lapovsky also indicated that local Democrats may be more focused on the three Sarasota County School Board elections, where the non-partisan nature of the races make it less likely voters will write off candidates for having the letter “D” next to their name.

Another reason may be that in this particular race, many Democrats actually like the Republican incumbent.

To many Democrats, Jen Ahearn-Koch, who is running for re-election in the city, would be an ideal District 2 contender. She is well-connected to the local advocacy and neighborhood groups, such as the Coalition for City Neighborhoods Association, and has proven herself by winning two city-wide elections.

However, Ahearn-Koch told the Suncoast Searchlight that she’s laser-focused on the city amid what she called pivotal upcoming issues like the new city manager, the Downtown Master Plan, a proposed sound ordinance and ongoing recovery from the 2024 hurricanes.

Ahearn-Koch also spoke glowingly of Smith, who she said is a constant presence at neighborhood meetings and forums.

“I wouldn’t run against Mark Smith,” Ahearn-Koch said. “I think he does a great job.”

Smith also represents a stark contrast to the district’s previous commissioner, Christian Ziegler, a partisan culture warrior who rose through the ranks to chair of the Florida GOP before being cast aside amid a sex scandal in 2023.

Kelly Kirschner, once the youngest mayor in Sarasota’s history, is now running for Congress as a Democrat in District 16, which has been redrawn to incorporate Sarasota County east of the interstate.

He is among local Democrats who suggested to Suncoast Searchlight that one reason their party has struggled running an opponent in District 2 is that Smith is popular among Democrats. They also pointed out how county commission races require far more money – with far more risk – than city seats and questioned whether it is the best use of party resources.

“Smith has done a good job representing his constituents and listening to them,” Kirschner said.

Martinez’s fear is that Sargent could unseat Smith. 

“There’s a chance,” he said, “we give up the seat to a Republican who won’t vote the same way Mark Smith does.”

Christian Casale is a local government/politics reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at christian@suncoastsearchlight.org