Election results suggest political tides shifting in Sarasota, Manatee counties

The political tides are shifting in Sarasota and Manatee counties as voters react to a an attempted right-wing takeover of local governments, two guests told WMNF WaveMakers with Janet & Tom on Tuesday (Aug. 27).

Last week’s primary elections for School Board, County Commission and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board signaled a notable pivot away from the far-right politics Sarasota and Manatee counties have seen since the rise of Donald Trump.

School Board member Tom Edwards, targeted for defeat by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was reelected with 66 percent of the vote. A second School Board member backed by DeSantis was defeated. They were among the 23 races DeSantis targeted this year, with 11 of his favored candidates losing. It was a stark contrast to 2022 when 25 of 30 DeSantis-backed School Board candidates were elected.

“I am thrilled that our community recognized what I had been saying to them for four years which is that the extremists and the culture war and all of the noise we had been experiencing is not who we are,” said Edwards. “I am pleased that the community really went to the ballot box and expressed their displeasure with the culture wars.”

While culture wars drove much of the School Board debate, a growing anti-developer movement played out in both the Sarasota and Manatee county commission races, said Michael Barfield, a reporter for the Florida Trident, the online news site of the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

A Sarasota commissioner appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis was defeated by the former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight, who criticized the commission for being in the pockets of developers. In Manatee, all five candidates backed by developers were defeated.

“For quite a number of years developers have had a field day with government giving them anything they asked for,” Barfield said.

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