{"id":203725,"date":"2026-03-24T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203725\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T10:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:28:07","slug":"usfs-taryn-sabia-throws-hat-in-for-2027-tampa-mayoral-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203725\/","title":{"rendered":"USF’s Taryn Sabia throws hat in for 2027 Tampa mayoral race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Taryn Sabia, the assistant dean of research for USF\u2019s College of Design, Art and Performance, said her candidacy stands on affordability and community involvement. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE\/COLLEGE OF DESIGN, ART AND PERFORMANCE<\/p>\n

Taryn Sabia, the assistant dean of research at USF\u2019s College of Design, Art and Performance, announced<\/a> her plans to run for Tampa mayor in the 2027 election this month.<\/p>\n

Sabia is one of nine mayoral candidates \u2014 all running to replace Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, who must leave her office in March 2027 due to term limits, according to the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Polling for the mayoral race opens March 2, 2027, according to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabia said she first considered running for mayor after the 2011 elections, when she noticed that younger Tampa voters were not proportionally represented in the voting results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my group that was going to be looking to find good jobs, buy houses and start families,\u201d Sabia said. \u201cIf they came out in large numbers, they could actually make the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabia said she felt inspired to run to address issues Tampa citizens still face \u2014 including affordability and support for local businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of the issues that we have seen over the past 20 years continue to get worse,\u201d Sabia said. \u201cThose problems haven\u2019t been solved, so we want to try and solve them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabia said her USF role will be reduced while she runs for mayor, but she still plans to teach a pair of classes in fall 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will take a step back from my administrative roles in the fall because of the campaign, and I will be focused on teaching,\u201d Sabia said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a plan in terms of how things carry on with me stepping outside of those administrative responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: USF, Florida universities to pause hiring H-1B faculty until 2027<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabia said her campaign aims to inspire younger residents to vote as they build their income and assets, adding that representing younger community members is important in a city where the median age is about 36<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get out and engage as much as we can,\u201d Sabia said. \u201cWe want them to feel like they\u2019re part of that process with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabia said those community members are the ones who live within the city and feel the effects of policy, and therefore, their voices in policy matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI may bring a set of skills to the table, but they live on their street, and they know what both the challenges and even some of the opportunities look like,\u201d Sabia said.<\/p>\n

Beyond her aspirations for the mayoral position, Sabia said her background in education and urban planning provides her with the skills necessary to step into the role and adjust to it.<\/p>\n

Sabia graduated from Eckerd College<\/a> with a bachelor\u2019s in visual arts, according to her USF biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She followed this degree with three master\u2019s \u2014 education from Harvard University<\/a>, architecture at Rhode Island School of Design<\/a> and urban and community design from USF, according to her USF biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sabia said her experience in urban planning gives her a unique avenue to effect change in Tampa, a city with over 400,000 residents<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy background gives me an opportunity to understand how important setting a vision is,\u201d Sabia said. \u201c[Our campaign is] understanding the broad picture and then understanding smaller-scale action items that we do to get there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabia does not have experience as a politician, but has served as a senior policy adviser to the Rhode Island Senate, where she helped counsel policy initiatives on transit and transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw how those community processes started to work between policy and legislation and the community and experts who were giving input on those processes,\u201d Sabia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: USF\u2019s lifelong learners prove education doesn\u2019t stop at graduation<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabia said she moved from Rhode Island to Tampa in 2006 to be closer to family.<\/p>\n

Since then, she has spent nearly two decades with USF, starting as an adjunct faculty member in 2012, moving through research associate positions to her assistant dean position with the College of Design, Art and Performance, according to her LinkedIn profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She has also served on more than a dozen local projects in Tampa, including leading the Mayor\u2019s Institute on City Design<\/a> three times \u2014 an experience she said gave her a glimpse of a mayor\u2019s responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat work in particular really introduced me to what mayors do, their role, how they coordinate with teams and how they take on big problems and challenges,\u201d Sabia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Sabia is looking to work on the other side of those projects, placing community involvement at the center of her campaign and role as mayor, if elected in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really hoping the community will come out for walk-and-talks,\u201d Sabia said. \u201c[Community members will] talk to us about the future of the city, and those are going to be the way we build out the plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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