Jimmy Glover and Heidi Brandt will face each other Tuesday, Nov. 3, for the Sarasota County School Board District 1 seat being vacated by Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of Moms for Liberty.

The runoff was triggered after neither candidate cleared 50% in the Aug. 18 primary. Final results: Glover led with 43,772 votes (43.53%); Brandt finished second with 31,898 votes (31.72%). A third candidate, Teresa DeWitt, was eliminated with 24,895 votes (24.76%). Your Observer's election-night reporting cited preliminary figures from the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections.

The race is officially nonpartisan. All Sarasota County voters can vote in the school board runoff. Glover is backed by the Democratic Party of Sarasota County, Equality Florida, and board members Tom Edwards and Liz Barker. Brandt is endorsed by the Republican Party of Sarasota County, state Rep. Fiona McFarland and state Sen. Joe Gruters.

The board's conservative majority, in place since 2022, dissolved after the primary. Ziegler, Karen Rose and Robyn Marinelli all declined to seek reelection. Democrat-backed candidates Megan Tennimon (55.14%) and Beth Mayberry (56.67%) won the District 4 and District 5 seats outright, WTSP reported. Tennimon and Mayberry will join Edwards and Barker, giving the bloc opposed to the former conservative majority four of the board's five seats regardless of the District 1 outcome.

The race will determine the margin of that shift and the direction of a district facing real fiscal pressure. Sarasota County Schools plans to eliminate 180 instructional positions and 79 classified jobs. Federal COVID-19 relief funding worth $115 million has expired, and the state voucher program has reduced district revenue by an estimated $45 million in the most recent year, according to Sarasota Magazine's July candidate profiles.

Who is Jimmy Glover?

Glover, a 30-year United Airlines flight attendant, moved to Sarasota from New Jersey a decade ago. He holds a communications degree from the University of Miami. His four children attended Sarasota County Schools and graduated from Booker High School.

He chairs the board of Star Lab, a Montessori-style school in the Newtown neighborhood serving kindergarten through third grade. He also serves as vice chair of the city's Parks, Recreation and Environmental Protection Advisory Board.

Glover's priorities include expanding mentorship for students in underserved communities and lobbying Tallahassee to restore income restrictions on the voucher program. In a July Suncoast Searchlight candidate profile, he explained the mentorship focus: "A lot of kids in underserved communities don't have access to a mentor who can guide and direct them through the process ... once they get into the work environment, or even the college level."

As of Aug. 13, Glover had raised $135,946, more than any candidate in the three contested school board races.

Who is Heidi Brandt?

Brandt is the mother of an elementary-age student and president of the parent-teacher organization at Southside Elementary. She has raised more than $66,000.

Her top issue is literacy. She wants to expand Southside's "Reading Partners" volunteer program to every elementary school in the district. She also lists school safety, athletics and the arts as priorities.

Brandt supports vouchers but has called Florida's system "broken," advocating a sliding scale that would tie scholarship amounts to family income rather than offering the full amount regardless of need.

She is working to separate herself from Ziegler's record. In the same July Suncoast Searchlight profile, Brandt said she would have voted against the board's ICE cooperation resolution, calling it "pointless" and saying it "drew up a lot of fear." She said she reached out to multiple people who told her the resolution would change nothing.

In an Aug. 26 WFLA interview, Brandt said: "I am not going to be someone who is going to bring politics to the board. So, while I might be the minority republican who hopes to serve on the board, I will always bring students to the forefront of every conversation."

The numbers

As of the July 20 book closing, Sarasota County had 328,751 registered voters: 162,747 Republicans, 80,594 Democrats and 85,410 with other or no party affiliation. In a nonpartisan race, those 85,000-plus unaffiliated voters could prove decisive.

The District 1 seat covers Sarasota's coastal, north-county area.