Mitch Perry
Andrew Davis, a 35-year-old Gibsonton resident who resigned from his position as public relations officer with the Hillsborough County Young Democrats on Tuesday night, says he is exploring a challenge to Stacy White for the District 4 seat onthe Hillsborough County Commission.
“We often talk about our desire to help our county and improve such issues as the area’s job market, transportation, affordable housing, and dealing with the challenges that have come with the area’s population surge. I am feeling more and more that my time to help in an even bigger way may be now,” Davis told his colleagues with the Hillsborough Young Democrats Tuesday night.
Davis works as a salesman and also writes a food blog. Like many other Democrats in Hillsborough, he says that the summer-long battle regarding removing a Confederate monument was an important moment for him personally and for the community, as was the fact that he was listed in the so-called dossier of Confederate monument critics published by Save Southern Heritage, the leading advocacy group to maintain the statue in its place.
“It is my belief that anyone regardless of political ideology or party affiliation should be able to voice their opinions to their elected officials without fear of retribution against either themselves or members of their family,” Davis says about that incident. “This is of course also the same David McCallister who was named in August to our county’s Diversity Advisory Board in what I consider an appalling move.”
If Davis opts to challenge White, it will be a formidable contest in what is generally considered the county’s most conservative district.
White has raised more than $152,000 for his re-election race next year. The only other announced Democrat in the race, Angel D’Angelo, has raised just $355.
Angry Hillsborough Democrats have the opportunity next year to defeat all four Republicans who at one point or another voted to maintain the Confederate statue in front of the county courthouse this summer, but the big political question has been if they will be able to field competitive candidates to do so. The BOCC has leaned Republican for years, and all four incumbents — White, Sandy Murman, Victor Crist and Ken Hagan, have years, in some cases, many years of experience serving on the board, which helps them with name recognition.
An energized anti-Donald Trump Democratic wave could change that dynamic, though whether Democrats will remain as focused and as energized as they are now for another year remains unknown at this time.
Davis says he will make a final decision about whether he will run for the District 4 seat sometime after the holidays.
