Sarasota School Board election: Tom Edwards wins, Liz Barker defeats incumbent Rose

Sarasota County primary election results .

Manatee County primary election results .

Tom Edwards , an incumbent, and Liz Barker, a newcomer, won election to the Sarasota County School Board, according to unofficial results from the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections. The outcomes indicated a public pushback against the direction of the board's conservative majority.

Edwards, who ran for reelection in District 3, and Barker, who challenged the incumbent board chairwoman Karen Rose in District 2, would constitute a two-person progressive minority on the School Board, which has been engulfed in turmoil for more than four years.

The two will be formally sworn in at a School Board meeting in November. Their terms last through November of 2028.

Edwards had about 56% of the vote in District 3 and Barker had 51.5% in District 2.

Edwards won reelection despite being one of 14 Florida school board members targeted by Gov. Ron DeSantis for ousting. He had been the target of homophobic attacks as a board member, once causing him to walk out of a meeting in protest of the rhetoric and file for reelection the next day .

He survived a three-person primary for the District 3 seat, where he faced a possible runoff election if he didn't receive 50% plus one vote.

Barker's election to the Sarasota School Board served as a chance for the public to weigh in on the board's direction, as Rose served as the board chairwoman and played a pivotal role in forcing the school district's superintendent, Brennan Asplen, out following the 2022 election of a conservative majory.

Following her victory, Barker thanked the community for making the right choice.

"It's a testament to the power of community and the fact that we chose kindness and we chose each other and we chose our students and our children and our teachers and our parents," Barker said. "I'm so proud to be a Sarasotan."

Edwards was not immediately available for comment.

District 2: Barker defeats Rose

Barker is a mother of four with students in Sarasota County public schools, a former school psychologist and a current parent-teacher organization member.

In fundraising, Rose collected more than Barker despite trailing for much of the race. Rose raised $259,800 compared to Barker's $226,441. However, much of Rose's fundraising came from $130,000 she donated to herself in the last month of the campaign.

Rose had endorsements from DeSantis, the Sarasota County Republican Party, state Reps. Fiona McFarland and James Buchanan, Florida Sen. Joe Gruters and Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman. She was also listed on a Moms for Liberty page that said she pledged to support the fundamental rights of parents .

Notably, the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association declined to endorse any school board candidates this cycle. The union had previously endorsed Rose in her 2020 campaign.

Rose has been critical of the Herald-Tribune's coverage of the Sarasota School Board, specifically coverage of the actions taken following the swearing-in of new board members in 2022, when Rose made a motion to terminate Asplen.

Following Asplen's removal, Rose supported Terry Connor's candidacy during the superintendent selection process, calling him the "obvious choice".

Rose also faced criticism from a vocal group of school board activists for pushing the district to re-draw its board member district lines despite having just done so in 2021 following the census.

A house in Siesta Key, which Rose filed under in 2018 when she first ran for School Board and lost, is listed under her husband's name: Dan Miller. Miller claims the homestead exemption on the Siesta Key home. The Siesta Key home would have been drawn into Rose's district under one of the proposed maps.

The redistricting raised questions about Rose's residency, as she lists a townhouse in District 2 as her home but does not claim the homestead exemption — a tax break that homeowners can claim on a property where they reside as their "permanent residence."

District 3: Edwards defeats Wood, Babicz

The District 3 seat was the most heavily contested School Board race this cycle, with three candidates vying for the spot. Edwards faced Greg Wood, a father of three and a former nonprofit executive, and Thomas Babicz, a retired IT professional who immigrated to New Jersey from Poland to escape communism.

Edwards, 66, was first elected to Sarasota's school board in 2020 in a tight race against the then-incumbent Eric Robinson. He has been the only registered Democrat on the board since a conservative majority was seated in 2022, and he describes himself as a moderate. Both Wood and Babicz are Republicans.

Edwards lapped his opponents several times over in campaign fundraising, garnering almost $200,000 in donations. The next closest candidate, Babicz, raised about $20,000. Edwards' funding came largely from grassroots donations with some out-of-state donations.

In a previous interview with the Herald-Tribune, Edwards said the Sarasota School Board has become too political — something he's heard from both ideological sides — and the political distraction shifts focus away from students.

"That's where the public's frustration is," Edwards said. "They (the board majority) are all politics, and it's reflective of the politics and policies that the governor in Tallahassee brought forth."

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota School Board election: Tom Edwards wins, Liz Barker defeats incumbent Rose