Orange Mayor Jerry Demings has 3rd challenger for his job — a Democrat
Environmentalist Kelly Semrad, who helped create Save Orange County, an advocacy group that opposed urban development east of the Econlockhatchee River, has filed paperwork to challenge Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings’ re-election bid.
“I’m disappointed in Mayor Demings,” said Semrad, 45, a Democrat.
Among her reasons for challenging Demings’ bid for a second term was her opposition to his employee-vaccination mandates and his stance in favor of the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s plan to build a road through a piece of Split Oak Forest.
Semrad said she also disagreed with Demings’ decision to fire Orange County battalion chief Stephen Davis for refusing to reprimand fire-rescue employees who did not comply with the COVID19 vaccination mandate or apply for a health or religious exemption.
Demings, 62, a Democrat, also has two Republican challengers, retired Army Col. Anthony Sabb, 61, and tech entrepreneur Chris Messina, 64, who have taken aim at Demings’ COVID-19 mandates and his push to raise the county sales tax 1% to fund transportation.
“She’s like everybody else. She has a right to run,” Demings said.
Semrad, who was involved in a successful campaign for a 2020 charter amendment to protect Split Oak, criticized the mayor’s continued support for the CFX road despite overwhelming voter sentiment to protect the 1,800acre conservation land in perpetuity.
“It’s a major violation of the people’s trust and faith in their elected officials,” she said. “The people spoke loud and clear.”
Orange County is a strongmayor form of government as spelled out in the charter. The mayor oversees a $5.2 billion budget and sits on the region’s most powerful and important boards. His office controls the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which governs Orlando International Airport; the Central Florida Expressway Authority; and the Tourist Development Council.
The mayor is elected in a nonpartisan race, meaning candidates are not identified on the ballot by party affiliation.
If none of the four candidates wins a majority of votes in the Aug. 23 primary, the top two vote-getters would face off Nov. 8.
In a phone call Thursday, Demings shrugged off Semrad’s criticism.
“I look at it as just another opportunity where I have to convince the electorate of Orange County that I’m the right person at the right time for this job,” the mayor said. “I’ve already done that one time and I’m certain that I’ll be successful the second time.”
He defended the Split Oak decision, noting it had the support of Audubon Florida and adds conservation acres in mitigation.
Demings also defended his leadership during the pandemic, including his vaccination mandates which led to the battalion chief ’s dismissal.
“A firefighter’s responsibility is to protect people in the safest manner possible,” he said. “I took a position that wasn’t political. It was about protecting people.”
During the county commission’s five-hour discussion of the sales tax, Semrad was among 40 people who spoke to the board Tuesday, nearly all in favor of the initiative. Messina spoke against the proposed increase, calling it unnecessary, regressive and destructive.
Semrad, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, was less critical.
“I think it’s amazing that we’re all sitting in this room and we agree upon something: that transportation in Orange County needs to be improved and that our mass transit system is behind where we would like to be and where we need to be both for safety of our people as well as for moving the tourists who come into our area,” she said. “I have several concerns about the model.”
She took exception with the proposed composition of a citizens’ oversight board to oversee spending if the measure passes.
Semrad said she thinks some of the 11 oversight seats ought to be filled by people who use mass transit.
A county resident since 2013, Semrad has never run for elected office but was appointed by District 5 Commissioner Emily Bonilla to the committee tasked with redrawing commission district boundaries as required by federal law after the biennial Census count.
She also was part of the District 5 Neighborhood Advisory Council, which Bonilla named as her citizens of the year in 2021.
Semrad also is a mother of two children, a son, Hawk, and a daughter, Forest Hope.
Demings, who served as Orange County sheriff from January 2009 to December 2018, was elected mayor in August 2018. His 62% majority defeated Republican opponents Pete Clarke, a former county commissioner, and businessman Rob Panepinto.
He has blazed a trail in public office as the first African American to serve as county mayor, Orlando police chief and sheriff.