ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 For the first time in decades, thousands of people in the city of Orlando will have a new person representing them at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Five people are running to replace District 3 Commissioner Robert Stuart, who is retiring after 20 years in office.<\/a><\/p>\n [WATCH: Longtime Orlando commissioner Robert Stuart will not seek reelection]<\/p>\n District 3 includes neighborhoods like Baldwin Park, Audubon Park, Rosemont and College Park.<\/p>\n News 6 anchor Lisa Bell sat down<\/a> one-on-one with each of the candidates in the non-partisan race: Samuel Chambers, Roger Chapin, Chris Durant, Kimberly Kiss, and Mira Tanna to ask each of them the same set of questions and dig deeper on certain topics as needed.<\/p>\n Election Day is Nov. 4, with early voting from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2.<\/p>\n To find your polling place, head to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.<\/a><\/p>\n You can look at the full interviews by clicking on the candidate names below:<\/p>\n Samuel Chambers<\/a> | Roger Chapin<\/a> | Chris Durant<\/a> | Kimberly Kiss<\/a> | Mira Tanna<\/a><\/p>\n News 6 learned a lot about these candidates, from their love of basketball to being a Quaker. Here they are in their own words:<\/p>\n CHRIS DURANT<\/p>\n LISA BELL: Is there anything you would like to share with our viewers that I didn\u2019t ask you about?<\/p>\n CHRIS DURANT: I\u2019m not related to Kevin Durant, so that\u2019s number one. I have the famous last name, but I\u2019m not related to him. I\u2019m great at basketball. That\u2019s why I became a youth sports coach, coaching basketball for young kids. But I\u2019m related to him, and I\u2019m trying to think of something else. I love playing chess.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n DURANT: I grew up here locally, right down the street from here in Rosemont. That\u2019s what I call home. That\u2019s the soil I grew from. And I love it here. I love the neighborhoods I live in. I love District 3, Orlando. My first job was with the City of Orlando at the Rosemont Community Center. I was working as a summer camp counselor. So, I\u2019m very rooted in this city. Also, I went to school here locally at Victory Christian Academy all the way up to my senior year from second grade. So, I love this city. It\u2019s where I call home. It is special to me, and I want to give back in a big way. I have four sisters. Kishana, Nicole, Karina, Kiara. My parents are immigrants. My mom is from Jamaica. She came to America when she was 14 years old. My dad is from Guyana in South America and he came to America when he was eight years old.<\/p>\n BELL: Some people may say you\u2019re 24 years old, you don\u2019t have the experience that\u2019s needed to be a city commissioner. What would your response be to people like that?<\/p>\n DURANT: Number one, I believe my age is actually an asset rather than a liability, and I\u2019ll tell you why. It\u2019s because my best years are ahead of me, and that\u2019s the same for us as a neighborhood, as a city, and as a district. Our best years are ahead of us only if we start electing candidates to reflect that. And I\u2019m not short in experience. I sat on an advisory board for Orange County Citizens\u2019 Corps as the mayor\u2019s representative, Mayor Jerry Demings. I give so much to my community, and I believe I could give so more at my young age, and I believe our city needs that. We need a fresh perspective. We need someone with energy, accessibility, and willing to give their all to the city. And I believe that\u2019s me. Our city\u2019s best years are ahead of us, and so are mine and I believe that\u2019s a great connection.<\/p>\n ROGER CHAPIN<\/p>\n BELL: Is there anything that I did not ask you about that you\u2019d like to share with us?<\/p>\n ROGER CHAPIN: So, I ran for the seat 23 years ago and I was unsuccessful, and I didn\u2019t go run for something else, I went back to doing what I thought I could to help and that was to be involved civically. So, I\u2019ve served on the municipal planning board, I\u2019ve served on the downtown development board when we approved the performing arts center, I served on the oversight committee for the performing arts center, I\u2019ve served on the Orlando Utilities Commission, I was instrumental in bringing UCF to downtown Orlando to Creative Village. I\u2019ve definitely got the most experience. I might not be the most energetic or the youngest, but I\u2019ve got the most experience in the race and with Robert Stuart retiring after 20 years, with Mayor Dyer retiring after twenty years, I can really be ready to hit the ground running on day one.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n CHAPIN: I was born and raised here in Orlando. I went to public schools, I went to Memorial Junior High, I went to Oak Ridge High School, I went off to Florida State University, came back, married my wife, Susan. We live in College Park. We\u2019ve been there 27 years. I have a daughter, Gray, who\u2019s a senior at the University of Florida. I\u2019ve pretty much, I\u2019ve worked here in Orlando my entire life. I\u2019ve worked for Darden Restaurants; I worked for 20 years with Mears Transportation. Now I own my own public relations communications firm, so yeah, that\u2019s a little bit about myself.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n BELL: Great, and I guess one final thing, Gators or Seminoles?<\/p>\n CHAPIN: Woo!<\/p>\n BELL: You\u2019ve got a house divided, it sounds like?<\/p>\n CHAPIN: I do, so I\u2019m a Seminole, my daughter\u2019s a Gator. My wife\u2019s a Gator. All my in-laws are Gators. My brothers are Seminoles, so it\u2019s tough. We all pull for each other when we\u2019re not playing ourselves. When I visit my daughter, I\u2019ll wear blue, but it\u2019s not Gator blue and no logos!<\/p>\n MIRA TANNA<\/p>\n BELL: Is there anything else that you would like to share with us that I didn\u2019t ask?<\/p>\n MIRA TANNA: I mean, maybe a word about being a Quaker.<\/p>\n BELL: OK, tell me.<\/p>\n TANNA: I\u2019m the clerk of the Quakers of Orlando, a longtime Quaker here in Orlando and some of the things that Quakers value are community, integrity, peace, equality, and stewardship. And so, these are some of values on how I live my life and that integrity piece is really central, both to how I live my life and how I want to lead.<\/p>\n BELL: Tell me more about that.<\/p>\n TANNA: The Religious Society of Friends was founded in the 1600s and Quakers were persecuted in England and many of them came to the United States to escape religious persecution, including William Penn, who founded the colony of Pennsylvania, and Quakers have been central in the abolition movement. They were stops on the Underground Railroad and had been involved in many major social justice and peace movements in our country. And so, we\u2019re a very small group, but we\u2019re mighty. We have always believed in walking the walk and in making the change that you want to see in the world.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n TANNA: You know, if elected, I believe I\u2019d be the only elected official in Central Florida who rides the bus. And transportation and public transit is a big conversation right now. And we need somebody who is in a decision-making position when it comes to these issues, who has real experience with our public transit system.<\/p>\n BELL: Why do you ride the bus to work every day?<\/p>\n TANNA: I ride the bus, you know, my car crashed in December of 2023 and luckily, we weren\u2019t injured significantly, and I thought a lot about you know what car I wanted to replace it with. And I decided that I would trade in that couple thousand dollars worth of insurance money, which wasn\u2019t really enough to buy a new car, for a fifty-dollar bus pass. So, I ride the LYNX because I care about climate change. And the more that I\u2019ve been riding the LYNX, the more benefit I\u2019ve seen. So, I walk over 10,000 steps every single day for the past year and a half. I\u2019ve lost weight. I\u2019m healthier. I feel better. You know, when I go into work, I\u2019ve already had 15 positive interactions with my neighbors, with the bus driver, with the person who cleans the streets, with the person who cleans outside of the bank. These are people I look forward to seeing. We wave, we smile. We know a little bit about each other and it\u2019s really just made my life better.<\/p>\n SAMUEL CHAMBERS<\/p>\n BELL: Is there anything that you would like to share with us that I did not ask you about?<\/p>\n SAMUEL CHAMBERS: About me personally?<\/p>\n BELL: Sure!<\/p>\n CHAMBERS: Yeah, so I am a college professor at Valencia. I teach local politics. I also serve as the chairman on the Orange Soil and Water Conservation Board. That\u2019s actually an elected board that we all vote for here in Orange County, whether you know it or not. I have also repeatedly spoken at City Hall on a number of issues, trying to support smart growth initiatives, try to limit urban sprawl or annexations, or giving tax deductions to big corporations or developers. So I participate at City Hall, I serve as an elected official, I participate in the community in the different neighborhood associations or community groups like friends of the Loch Haven Chain of Lakes is another one, and so for all those reasons, I feel like I\u2019m the best choice for District 3.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n CHAMBERS: I was born and raised here in Orlando. Actually, I was born in District 3 where I\u2019m running, when it was still called the Florida Hospital. I know before that it was called the Florida Sanitarium. I come from a middle-class family of my mom and dad, both worked in grocery stores. Went to St. Charles, Edgewater High School, later went on to go to Valencia, FSU, where I got a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s in political science. Once I moved back here to Orlando, during COVID, I began being very active in the community. I served in a state legislative office as an intern. I engage regularly with different community groups such as neighborhood associations, whether that\u2019s Rosemont, College Park, Lake Formosa, you name it. Also, I ran for the Soil and Water Conservation Board in 2022 and was elected to that position, so now I currently serve as Chairman of the Board. So that\u2019s just a little bit about me.<\/p>\n KIMBERLY KISS<\/p>\n KIMBERLY KISS: One thing I like to talk about growing up here was I was raised by a single mom. We did live in affordable housing for a time. She saved money and bought a townhome, which was a great housing option for a mom. And she took the bus to work at the airport. I took the city bus to my first job at Chick-fil-A over in the Colonial Plaza. We all love that one. And I say that because I know growing up here that the city services, the bus, the afterschool programs, the community center were a big part of my life. And now being able to raise my own family here, also in the city limits, I just, I feel like I have so much to give back and so much be thankful for and want to make sure that our families here now have the safe opportunities.<\/p>\n BELL: All right, tell us a little bit about your background?<\/p>\n KISS: Sure, so I grew up in Orlando. I went to Howard (Middle School), I went to Boone (High School), Valencia, Rollins (College). I\u2019ve been here for most of my life with the exception of going to law school and I\u2019ve practiced estate planning and probate for at least the past 10 years. And in doing that, I have talked to a number of families, and this is about what their concerns are, what their books say, what they want for their children. And so I\u2019ve had and developed a really good sense of what\u2019s important to our families in the area.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 For the first time in decades, thousands of people in the city of Orlando will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1296,2715,139,141,140,99,6892],"class_list":{"0":"post-6361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-district-3","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-results-2025"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}