Janelle Irwin Taylor
Two more candidates have entered the Tampa City Council Special Election for District 5 to replace the late Gwendolyn Henderson, who passed away suddenly earlier this month.
The tally of candidates now running is up to six.
New to the race are Fran Tate, a community advocate, and Melony Williams, a military veteran.
Williams is a Republican who most recently ran unsuccessfully in the GOP Primary for Hillsborough Clerk of Court, losing to former Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist, who went on to defeat incumbent Democrat Cindy Stuart in the General Election.
Williams is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army with nearly 30 years of military service. She’s also a native Tampanian who graduated from Hillsborough High. She earned her undergraduate degree at Columbia College of Missouri and a Master of Science in Logistics Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
Tate is a Democrat who serves as the President of the Jackson Heights Neighborhood Association, a position that sees her advocating regularly for the community for things like access to affordable housing, better public safety and food security. She works in medical coding at Moffitt Cancer Center, according to her LinkedIn bio.
Tate is also a Silver Lifetime member of the Hillsborough NAACP.
Williams is so far the only registered Republican to join the race. As such, she likely has the biggest climb. There are nearly 25,000 Democrats and fewer than 8,000 Republicans in Tampa’s District 5, according to the most recent voter registration data with the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office. Even if all of the more than 10,000 independent voters sided with the GOP, conservative voters would still be outnumbered.
Tate and Williams join other candidates in the race such as real estate professional and entrepreneur Juawana Williams; Ariel Amirah Danley, who is Henderson’s daughter; perennial local candidate Elvis Piggott; and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Thomas Scott.
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer scheduled a Special Election to replace Henderson for Sept. 9. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held Oct. 28.
Candidate qualifying for the race begins Aug. 11 and ends Aug. 15. The deadline to register to vote for the Special Election is Aug. 11.
To run, candidates must have been a resident in District 5 for at least six months prior to the date they assume office and a resident of the city for one year.
Early voting for the Special Election will run Sept. 4-7 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., with polls open on Election Day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Because Henderson passed away more than 15 months before her term would have ended, a Special Election is required to fill the remainder of her term.
