Sequoia Felton comes within striking distance of Kyle Battie.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: August 21, 2024
Host: The City of Sarasota District 1 race is now moving to the general election, where incumbent Kyle Battie has to face political novice Sequoia Felton. Ramon Lopez reports.
Ramon Lopez: The race for the District 1 seat on the Sarasota City Commission is now down to two, after “first election” results were tabulated Tuesday night.
Battie
Incumbent Kyle Battie will face challenger Sequoia Felton in the Nov. 5 general election, as they received more votes than Melissa Furman, a Delta flight attendant, and the third candidate. Battie tallied 43 percent of the vote, while Felton followed with 38 percent.
Battie, who grew up in District 1, was first elected to the commission in 2020.
So who is Sequoia Felton? She is a political novice, but previously served on the city’s Human Relations Advisory Board. Community-oriented, she works with the homeless at the Sarasota Harvest Church. Felton was born and grew up in Manatee County, and raised by her grandmother. She is the eldest of six. Felton has volunteered for the Democratic Black Caucus.
Both Battie and Felton are African-American. Furman is white. Since the 1980s, all commissioners representing this district have been African-American.
District 1 encompasses Newtown, Sarasota’s only historically Black neighborhood. But the district also includes the rapidly gentrifying Gillespie Park and Bayou Oaks. Both Battie and Furman live in the mixed Central-Coconut neighborhood. Felton has resided in Newtown since 2006.
Felton
Observers believe Felton remains in the race for the District 1 city commission seat because she won the endorsement of Willie Charles Shaw, the one-time commissioner for District 1 who Felton cites as an inspiration.
Shaw’s long tenure on the city commission ended in 2020 when Kyle Battie won his current term on the commission. Felton says she wants to pick up where Shaw left off.
She is also backed by Fredd Atkins, the first Black mayor of Sarasota, and Jetson Grimes, a long-time Newtown booster.
WSLR News also spoke to Kyle Battie on Wednesday about his win and upcoming two-way race with Sequoia Felton. He said he felt good, humble and overwhelmingly grateful to his constituents and the residents of his district.
“I thank them for putting their faith in me to represent them,” he said.
Battie also said he would “work a lot harder” than he did during the first election. “I had a lot of personal things to deal with. I was not able to give my full attention to the campaign.”
Battie said he has faith that the people of District 1 will “keep me on the job since I am best suited for this position.”
Battie asked this reporter to offer Sequoia Felton his congratulations if I were to speak to his rival.
Sarasota County Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Kuether said things worked out well for Democrats in the City of Sarasota.
Daniel Kuether: Two Democrats running in the non-partisan city race in Sarasota, they blocked out the one Republican there. So that was exciting to see, with Kyle Battie and Sequoia Felton. So I’m excited to see them. they will be going head to head in November. but we have held the City of Sarasota, which is going to continue on here for another four years. So that’s exciting.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
Clarification: This web story has been edited. Our initial report stated that one candidate would need to get at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff in November. But the City Charter dictates that if there are three or more qualified candidates in the “first” election, which coincides with primaries, then the top two vote getters will move on to the November general election.