Janelle Irwin Taylor
Deborah Figgs-Sanders is facing a tough challenge this year as she seeks a second term serving in District 5 of the St. Petersburg City Council, which covers parts of south St. Pete including Maximo, Greater Pinellas Point and Lakewood Estates, among other neighborhoods.
Her challenger, Torrie Jasuwan, is a first-time candidate who, despite relative political inexperience, has proven to be a strong fundraiser and a serious candidate.
Jasuwan is a local real estate executive and self-described “mompreneur” who fights to make diapers tax free.
A Pinellas County native, Jasuwan is a small-business owner and real estate broker with Luxe properties International. She’s also the founder of Babycycle Diaper Bank, a nonprofit that serves more than 250,000 families in need each year. She has been a vocal advocate at the state level for tax-free diapers, successfully working with Sen. Lauren Book and Rep. Anna Eskamani to eliminate the tax in Florida.
Jasuwan and a business partner, Jeanette Secor, also recently oversaw the remodeling and rebranding of Two Mermaids Resort in Treasure Island.
And in a claim to fame of sorts, she and her family have appeared several times, over two seasons, on the Bravo reality series “Below Deck.”
Jasuwan has earned several honors for her work in the community, including the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s Iconic Woman of the Year Award for community service, the PEMHS Pacesetter award and the Pinellas Realtor Organization’s Good Neighbor award.
Figgs-Sanders, currently serving as Council Chair for 2024, was elected in 2020 and took office in 2021. She served as Vice Chair of the board in 2023. Figgs-Sanders also chairs the St. Pete City Council Committee of the Whole.
Figgs-Sanders also boasts an extensive résumé of community service, including current service on the Pinellas County Council for Persons with Disabilities; the Wrap Around Collaborative; as an AKA AKAdemy mentor; and on the Earth Mission Ministries board.
Her past service is even more extensive, with service on boards ranging from the city of St. Petersburg Civilian Police Review Committee to the Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service Advisory Committee. She’s also served in several volunteer roles with Pinellas County Schools, her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg, among others.
The 58-year-old Figgs-Sanders’ résumé spans decades. She is President of Power Broker Media Group, and Vice President of Supreme Heating and Cooling, all while juggling her responsibilities as an elected official. She was Executive Director of the St. Petersburg YMCA and served on the Community Redevelopment Area Citizens Advisory Council as a Mayor Rick Kriseman appointee.
Figgs-Sanders may be a hard target to topple, with broad institutional support among local leaders. Endorsers include, among others, Mayor Ken Welch, for whom Figgs-Sanders is a staunch supporter; as well as Sen. Darryl Rouson; Reps. Michele Rayner and Lindsay Cross; Pinellas County Commissioners Charlie Justice and Rene Flowers; St. Pete City Council colleagues Brandi Gabbard, Copley Gerdes and Richie Floyd; former St. Pete Mayors Kriseman and Bill Foster; and former City Council member Lisa Wheeler-Bowman.
But Jasuwan, running as a change candidate, has also garnered strong support, including most recently from former City Council members Frank Peterman Jr. and Leslie Curran. She also has support from former Mayor Rick Baker, and former City Council member and once-mayoral candidate Robert Blackmon, who all offered their support earlier this Summer.
Other backers include former City Council members Jay Lasita, who served in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and Jim Kennedy, who served more recently. She has several other nods from predecessors on the dais, including former City Council members Jamie Bennett, Jeff Danner, Kathleen Ford, Karl Nurse and Larry Williams. She also secured support from Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne and former St. Pete Mayor Bob Ulrich.
Figgs-Sanders, as of Oct. 18, maintained an edge in fundraising, with more than $103,000 raised, about $17,000 more than Jasuwan. She also entered the home stretch with a cash-on-hand advantage, with more than $50,000 still on hand as of Oct. 18, compared to about $36,000 for Jasuwan.
Figgs-Sanders and Jasuwan are running on similar platforms, with the incumbent focusing on continued progress on affordable housing, economic workforce development, youth opportunity, the environment and local business.
Jasuwan similarly is focusing on affordable housing, noting the city’s ongoing crisis. As a real estate professional, her platform includes adding transparency on city-owned property lists to facilitate sales to builders who agree to construct affordable housing. Her plan also includes working with the city’s zoning department to identify solutions and add density, while also looking into utilizing vacant city buildings as possible multiuse properties that could include affordable housing.
Additionally, her platform includes broadening the city’s support for nonprofit organizations.
In a subtle barb to her opponent, Jasuwan is also running to bring “unity to Council,” noting that “an open door policy” is “essential to a successful City Council.”
Ultimately, the race may be less about voters’ feelings on the candidates’ themselves, and more about Welch.
Figgs-Sanders has been seen as a rubber stamp for his administration and has faced particular push back among those who opposed Welch’s brokered deal with the Tampa Bay Rays and Hines developer to redevelop Tropicana Field.
Jasuwan may face some challenge among voters turned off by a fundraiser for a Catholic school dubbed a “Trailer Park Partay.” A photo obtained by the Tampa Bay Times shows Jasuwan posing alongside several women dressed in stereotypical low-income attire, with one woman wearing a fake pregnancy belly with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Most of the women posed with red Solo cups.
But the Times, which reported on the fundraiser, backed Jasuwan over Figgs-Sanders. In its recommendation, the editorial board wrote that “Jasuwan will bring better ideas and a fresh perspective,” and praised “her business acumen and relationship-building skills” as a plus. While the board dinged Jasuwan on the “trailer trash” event, which it noted as an “unfortunate” decision, the editorial board lamented Figgs-Sanders’ “yes” vote on “the financially ludicrous Sankofa housing deal,” a city investment of $19.1 million for just 24 townhomes.
