Sara Peacock speaking to Brandon residents during Pizza and Politics night. Photo by Leah Burdick
At Bloomingdale Pizza, 20 residents attended pizza and politic night to hear from some local, state and federal candidates running in the 2026 election. There was free pizza and lots of laughter as residents and candidates interacted with each other.
During the event, there were 11 candidates who had the opportunity to share information about why they are running and answer any questions.
Some candidates who had the most questions from residents were Karen Perez a candidate for Hillsborough County School Board (district 6), Robert People, a candidate for U.S Congress (district 15) and Wengay Newt Newton, a candidate for Florida House of Representatives (district 62).
Resident asks question to candidates during the Q&A portion. Photo by Leah Burdick
Residents listening to what candidates have to share. Photo by Leah Burdick
Some candidates business cards on tables for residents to grab. Photo by Leah Burdick
Perez is running for reelection and during her speech she talked about her involvement in mental health.
“The main thing that I ran on and the main thing I will continue to beat the drum on is our mental health for students and how we need to contuse to fund our mental health in clinics in the community, but also bring those dollars to our school,” Perez said.
After her speech, residents asked questions and brought up topics about banned books, teacher pay and the decrease in students attending public school.
Perez said in her term she has helped give teachers a $6,000 a year pay raise. For her reelection she said she wants to find a way to build housing for teachers.
“I want to make sure teachers are paid a living salary and are also looking at the possiblilty of working with county commissions to look t housing for teachers and working with now. We have a meeting coming up to look at the possibility of this housing,” Perez said.
People was another candidate who touched upon educational topics, but his main focus was transparency, proactivity and social security.
“I should be able to make it here every quarter. I want to make sure that’s out, that is really important because the people here, the residents in district 15 are the ones who put me up,” People said. “That’s a priority of mine as well is to make it back to speak to everyone.”
When discussing his transparency, residents were interactive with his rhetorical questions about what they want him to fight for.
Newton was another candidate who had a few questions after he shared his campaign.
He mainly talked about how he wants to educate people on the concerns of eliminating property tax.
“We need to do a study to see what quality of life you’re willing to accept, just to have no property tax. My suggestion would be to corrupt that high insurance because that insurance is not providing you with the quality of life,” Newton said.
He also touched upon how he passed a unanimous vote for cancer preemption coverage for firefighters.
The other candidates who spoke were:
Sara Peacock- a candidate for circuit court judge, 13th judicial, group 7
Dawn Myers- a candidate for circuit court judge, 13th judicial circuit, group 1
Nina Alvarez- a candidate for circuit court judge, 13th judicial circuit, group 13
Leland Ann Baldwin- a candidate for circuit court judge, 13th judicial circuit, group 8
Anthony Deribas- a candidate for U.S. Congress, district 16
Jim Wimsatt- a candidate for circuit court judge, 13th judicial court
Glenn Pearson- a candidate for U.S. Congress, district 16
Jan Schneider- a candidate for U.S. Congress, district 16
Right before the event ended, there was another speaker who arrived to share a few words: Quinn F. Robinson a candidate for county commissioner district 3.
Overall, the event was full of laughter and jokes as everyone connected over politics.