Fran Tate at the Florida Rising Forum at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 16, 2025. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Another Tampa City Council race is taking shape thanks to a familiar face and name: Fran Tate.
The community leader entered the District 5 City Council race in July, six months after incumbent District 5 City Council member Naya Young filed. Life coach Christina Murray is also in the race. So far in campaign financing Young leads with over $16,000 in contributions, Murray with over $2,000 in-kind contributions and Tate with zero dollars so far.
In 2025, Tate ran in the crowded special election to fill the District 5 seat left vacant after the death of Tampa City Councilwoman Gwen Henderson. She earned just 10% of the vote. Thomas Scott (27%) and Young (13%) went on to the runoff, where Young handily defeated Scott.
Tate told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay her community experience and concerns about Tampa’s stormwater projects separates her from her opponents.
“I am proactive, pro-concerned about the stormwater projects,” said Tate. “I have a history in this community of 21 years. I’m very familiar with the needs: housing, transportation, infrastructure, public safety; I understand where the need lies. So that sets me apart, and I’m familiar with my residence. I walk my community. I talk to my community. That sets me apart from the other two candidates.”
Yesterday, Tampa City Council voted 4-3 to the South Howard Flood Project, which has a pricetag of $100 million.
Tate, sitting at yesterday’s city council meeting, addressed the reallocation of funding from a previously cancelled East Tampa storm drainage project to the current S Howard Avenue project. Tate told CL that she showed up to the meeting to make sure money wasn’t taken from East Tampa.
“Allow our project to go forward. They canceled it, and took our money. No, that can’t happen; that’s not fair. That’s not right,” she added.
Tate’s platform revolves around bringing attainable housing, public safety and infrastructure, economic development, transportation, and accountability to the city’s budget according to her campaign website. Tate says she sits on the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency Community Advisory Committee and was once chair for the committee having a $30 million budget—Tate says that not much got done and that she wants to move housing forward in the district.
“People need housing,” Tate said. “They need attainable housing. They need housing that they can hold on to. People are getting the grants. They’re getting the down payment assistance, but people are losing their houses. So I want to address that. I want to make sure they are able to remain in their homes. That’s the American dream. Homeownership.”
District 5 covers a portion of central and east Tampa that covers all of Downtown Tampa, Channel District, Ybor City, and Jackson Heights.
Tate, 66, is the founder and president of the Jackson Heights Neighborhood Association since 2017 and has been an advocate for her district, pressing for more bus shelters as she once did back in 2021. Tate says she sees the struggles of bus riders when there aren’t enough shelters in place for residents.
“When I first started advocating, I received two bus shelters here in East Tampa, North 34th Street, not too far from my house,” Tate said. “I kept my advocacy going. Anytime I saw [Hillsborough County] Commissioner Myers hold a town hall and she would ask for questions and comments at the end, my hand flew up. ‘Commissioner Myers, please, we need more bus shelters in East Tampa. I am witnessing senior citizens sitting in the heat, sitting in the rain, sitting in the wind. I’m witnessing young mothers with babies, no protection.”
“The last town hall we talked at, I advocated once again, and she said, ‘Fran Tate, you will be receiving 21 more bus shelters all over East Tampa.’ Sidewalks, infrastructure. I am really, really going to focus on infrastructure.”
Last month, City Council member Naya Young gave her yes vote for the city contribution of $80 million in tax revenue to go towards the nearly $800 billion contribution from the county towards the new Rays stadium set to be placed on the Hillsborough County College campus in District 6. Tate wouldn’t say how she would have voted but after seeing negotiations for the extension of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area — she was pleased to see that portion of the deal come to fruition.
“Negotiating the extension of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area out 10 more years because we’re soon to expire in 2034,” said Tate. “It was negotiated in this deal that we’d be extended out another 10 years, and I went, praise God, because we haven’t been able to get anything moving. I mean, we have projects in the queue that have got to get moving.”
Election Day is March 2, 2027; early voting days are still to be determined. The deadline to register to vote is Feb. 1, 2027.
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This article appears in Sept. 17 – 23, 2026.
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