A veteran and former Baltimore prosecutor, Sargent is challenging incumbent Mark Smith in Republican primaries.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: June 5, 2026
Host: In a Republican primary on August 18, Kristina Sargent will be challenging incumbent Mark Smith for the District 2 seat of the Sarasota County Commission. Noah Bookstein sat down with Sargent at the radio station.
Noah Bookstein: Kristina Sargent is a veteran and former Baltimore prosecutor who fell in love with Sarasota while visiting and moved here five years ago. She took the Florida bar, sold her home in Maryland, said goodbye to her family and friends and came straight down.
Kristina Sargent
Kristina Sargent: I love Sarasota even if I have to sit in traffic. At least I’m sitting in traffic in paradise. I really love being here. There’s so much community involvement. I really didn’t get that when I was in Baltimore.
NB: Since then, she recently founded her own civil defense firm, Harris, Schlossberg and Sargent. Sargent decided to run and challenge District 2 Commissioner Mark Smith after a tragic incident in 2024.
KS: I want to live here. I’m becoming a grandmother next month. I would love for my daughter to raise her family here. But it’s going to get significantly more expensive if we don’t prioritize what’s important. That’s why I’m running. A young girl died up the street from where I live because she got pulled into the storm drain. There are streets here that haven’t been addressed or updated in decades, and we are all going to suffer because of that.
NB: She thinks the county has to make infrastructure a priority.
KS: I don’t think it is a revenue problem. I think it’s a priority problem. We have the money; we’re just spending it on things that don’t need money. We don’t need all these new government buildings.
NB: She supports dredging Philippi Creek but thinks the project has limitations.
KS: I don’t see enough stormwater capacity for it all, so there has to be some significant changes. I do think that Philippi Creek needs to be dredged. It’s an expensive project, but it’s a Band-Aid on a bullet hole. We used to say that in the military all the time—“It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet hole.”
NB: Sargent doesn’t think the county commission has made affordable housing a priority either.
KS: I’ve heard the commission say—and the commissioners say—that affordable housing is a priority for the commission, but then when projects with affordable housing come in front of the board, they’re voted against. There have been tools at the state level that have pushed for affordable housing. I fully support affordable housing. I don’t know why it’s such a taboo thing to have affordable housing around when studio bedrooms cost $2,200. That’s outrageous. People that work here—people who work in the service industry—need a place to live, too.
NB: She sees potential in the state stepping in, pointing to new incentives such as the Live Local Act, and doesn’t think the county should be blocking it.
KS: Live Local Act is supposed to help protect the people that live here, that work here, that don’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and to have affordable housing, and again, it was voted against. We decided we are not going to follow this state statute, and I think it’s going to be bad.
NB: As an attorney, she thinks the county’s decision to oppose Live Local will cost significant money.
KS: I think the voting recently by the commission is going to cost us millions of dollars down the road. As a lawyer, I think it was a poor decision. I think it’s important to listen to the community and the community wants and needs because the community does have a voice, but the commission also has to vote in accordance with the law, and I don’t think that was done.
NB: Growth and development is a defining tension in this race, and Sargent said she would consider each development on a case by case basis.
KS: There’s no hard, fast rule or line or boundary that I would govern. I think it is important to take everything under advisement. It’s important to listen to the community. It’s important to look at the proposals individually and to vote in an informed manner.
NB: And on whether she’d support rezoning of agricultural land for development:
KS: There’s a large amount of people in Sarasota who don’t want any growth. They want everything to remain the way it is. It’s hard to please everybody saying, “I don’t want it here, I don’t want it here, I don’t want it here.” Where’s the solution? Where would you like it? So I wouldn’t have an umbrella opinion of land should be preserved and what land could be developed, but I would take everything on an individual basis.
NB: Sargent’s primary opponent, Mark Smith, has pointed to financial contributions she’s received from developers, including Rex Jensen, as evidence of developer influence. Sargent points to her support from the legal community but also celebrates Jensen’s work in Lakewood Ranch.
KS: I did get support from Rex Jensen. I think he has done a fantastic job with Lakewood Ranch. As far as the developer community here, the majority of my donations come from the legal community—they come from attorneys—because those are my people. Those are my friends.
NB: On property taxes, DeSantis’s proposed overhaul could strip a significant portion of the county’s general fund.
KS: What is being proposed? I think it’s going to hurt us a lot more than it’s going to help the people that won’t have to pay those property taxes.
NB: As for why she thinks people should vote for her over the incumbent candidate:
KS: Mark Smith has voted yes on every single budget increase the entire time he has been in office. I would prioritize the spending—that would be the number one thing, and addressing infrastructure. I remember when Mark ran last time, he ran off of infrastructure, and then being in office, I didn’t really see a lot of that being a priority. My goal is to prioritize roads, stormwater, infrastructure and to not increase taxes for local residents.
NB: For WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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