The subsequent election for the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) isn’t till November of 2026, so why is Wesley Chapel resident Stephanie Vazquez already declaring that she goes to run as a Democrat to oppose present Republican District 2 Pasco Commissioner Seth Weightman? Stephanie is the primary candidate to throw a hat into the race to unseat Weightman for the Dist. 2 seat. Right here’s why:
In case you’re unfamiliar with Pasco County authorities or new to the world, Pasco is split up into 5 districts, with District 2 together with a big portion (however not all) of Wesley Chapel, in addition to about half of Land O’ Lakes, and small (however vital) parts of unincorporated Zephyrhills and Lutz.
Vazquez, who has been a resident of District 2 since 2013 (there might be extra on this later on this story), moved to our space from Pittsburgh, PA. Like many northerners, she primarily needed to flee the snow.
With Wesley Chapel being the fastest-growing space of not simply Pasco, but in addition one of the shortly increasing areas of Florida and your complete nation, Vazquez believes that the time is now for a change in county management.
“I’ve considered operating for a number of years,” she says, including that though she’s new to politics, her background has ready her for management and, “The time is now.”
The Proper Background, The Proper Individual
Vazquez at present works as a distant advertising and marketing supervisor for Northeastern College in Boston, MA, however she is also enrolled as a web-based scholar on the college, as she is working in direction of her second Grasp’s diploma, this one in Public Administration, and expects to graduate in 2026. She believes that diploma helps to organize her for the job she’s now searching for.
She earned her first Grasp’s diploma, for Entrepreneurship in Utilized Applied sciences, in 2016 from the College of South Florida and he or she beforehand earned her Bachelor of Science diploma in Behavioral Sciences from Bellevue College in Bellevue, NE, in 2010.
However, Vazquez says, her determination to run is about much more than simply her instructional background. Most of her latest work expertise, starting together with her service within the U.S. Air Drive as a Senior Airman, working in airfield administration, each within the states and abroad in Germany, is about public service. When she left the navy, she says she needed to proceed combating, however on two completely different sorts of battlefields most individuals by no means see.
The primary was her seven-year service as an Advisory Board member for the Submit 9/11 Veterans Corp., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that focuses on, “offering a platform, a place to begin, and a spot of belonging, the place veterans are inspired to combine into their native communities and encourage by way of actions.”
The more moderen battle was towards Human Trafficking. As a vice chairman of the U.S. Institute Towards Human Trafficking and a Board member of each the Pasco County Fee on Human Trafficking and the NISSI Venture (which gives housing for verified grownup feminine victims of human trafficking) for six years, Vazquez says she helped construct these nationwide and native packages to sort out exploitation at its roots: opening a secure home, constructing restoration packages and coaching 1000’s to acknowledge and cease injustice.
She later honed her public talking and writing abilities whereas holding a public servant authorities place as a public data officer for the Metropolis of Zephyrhills.
A Marketing campaign Solid By Onerous Occasions
Vazquez says she hasn’t had it simple, explaining that rising up poor helped construct her character, not simply as soon as, however twice in her life. Born in Flint, MI, her dad was a younger Marine veteran who labored part-time at an area drug retailer whereas additionally going to school part-time to attempt to earn a fundamental diploma. In the meantime, her mom was a stay-at-home mother, however each of her mother and father’ households got here from generational poverty, so between her dad’s paycheck and important authorities companies like meals stamps, she stated it was barely sufficient to maintain them from going hungry.
She remembers rising up having to “do with out” more often than not, as her household stretched all the things they’d, typically having to eat the identical one meal a number of occasions in row.
“Essentially the most disgusting factor was the powdered milk, combined with water,” she says, “as a result of actual milk was too costly for us. I can nonetheless style it.”
Years later, Vazquez discovered herself in an identical scenario, simply out of a relationship that wasn’t working. As a single mother of three, she moved to Florida, with youngsters who have been 4, 3, and three months previous. She was unable to afford little one care or discover a job that paid sufficient to place them in daycare, so she discovered herself beneath the poverty line, receiving authorities help.
“I used to take my youngsters to Walmart so they might play with toys,” she says, “as a result of we couldn’t afford to purchase any.” However, these struggles compelled her to develop the flexibility to get by, and evolve, leaning on her expertise from the navy. She says that whenever you’re poor and struggling, “you don’t take into consideration politics, you concentrate on find out how to survive.” That have makes her need to rise up for working class households.
“Pasco deserves higher than enterprise as regular,” she says. “Our households are paying the value whereas a handful of insiders money out. I’m not a politician. I’m a veteran, a mother and a group advocate who believes Pasco ought to work for the individuals who reside right here, not for the highly effective few calling all of the photographs.”
However, why ought to folks vote for her?
“The incumbent was hand-picked by insiders, and swept-in by way of a closed main,” Vazquez says, including that the present commissioners, together with her opponent, proceed to vote to permit increasingly more development, “earlier than the county is prepared for it. However, I’m not a part of the county political machine, I’m a part of this group.”
She says that Weightman was, “a strategically chosen candidate” by the native powers that be. “However, I would like clear authorities, not back-rooms offers, with selections made within the open, with transparency and accountability.”
Listed below are the problems Vazquez says her marketing campaign her marketing campaign might be about:
• Fixing damaged roads, drainage and outdated storm programs.
• Getting ready for future challenges like flooding and local weather change.
• Establishing time period limits to interrupt the cycle of insider management.
• Curbing reckless development that strains neighborhoods and faculties.
Talking Of Colleges…
She and her husband Yamani Vazquez Martinez have constructed their life in Pasco, elevating a blended household of six youngsters. All of their youngsters have both graduated from, or at present attend, Pasco’s public faculties and Yamani at present is serving as an assistant principal at Cypress Creek Center College.
Vazquez believes strongly within the energy of schooling, and personally feels that new large-scale developments ought to be required to incorporate college websites, in order that the youngsters residing in these communities can go to varsities in or close to their very own neighborhoods, in addition to to maintain class sizes acceptable and have fewer moveable school rooms all through the district. Vazquez says that overcrowding of school rooms will be prevented by way of, “correct, considerate planning. If the inhabitants is rising, we have to prioritize faculties, and builders have to pay their justifiable share.”
However, talking of paying their justifiable share, Vazquez says, “In August 2024, Commissioner Weightman was the one Pasco commissioner to vote towards elevating college influence charges, that are one of many few methods to carry builders accountable and fund faculties as prices rise. He selected builders over Pasco‘s youngsters.“
Vazquez additionally has posted a video to her social media opposing Home Invoice 5101 — laws that would cut back public college funding statewide. The video, which breaks down the invoice’s potential influence on native school rooms, has garnered greater than 40,000 views and lots of of feedback from educators, mother and father and anxious voters.
“I’ve spent years combating for individuals who have been neglected or outright ignored — together with our academics,” Vazquez says. “I didn’t anticipate the video to take off, however I believe it hit a nerve. Individuals are uninterested in watching public schooling be gutted whereas our youngsters and academics are left behind.”
She acknowledges that if she was to be elected, there is probably not a lot she will do to straight assist enhance trainer salaries, that are managed by the Pasco College Board, however says that serving to to fund faculties with BCC-controlled improvement influence charges could be her high precedence, with #2 being funding for brand new and improved roads, and #3 being flood mitigation and drainage initiatives.
These college points hit near dwelling for Vazquez, as a result of Yamani has been an educator for 15 years. Schooling, administration and college athletics are vital to him, as he beforehand was the top coach of Wiregrass Ranch Excessive’s softball staff for eight years.
To Develop Or Not To Develop?
Vazquez desires voters to know that she is NOT anti-development. She simply desires the BCC to contemplate three vital questions:
“Do we want it? Does it put the folks of Pasco first? Are we prepared for it?”
She feels that these questions would assist the county keep away from the “Gold Rush Mentality,” the place builders simply need to earn cash after which go away, sticking taxpayers with gridlocked roads, overcrowded faculties and neighborhoods that flood with each storm. She says that the sort of reckless improvement, which appears to be operating rampant in Pasco, “favors insiders over households. However, sufficient is sufficient.”
As for what she envisions District 2 to seem like 10 years from now, Vazquez she says that our space already is changing into the hub for well being care in Pasco County and will proceed to take action, with extra new hospitals and medical workplaces persevering with to be added to the native panorama. She sees this medical hub being surrounded by thriving communities, with faculties, walkable inexperienced areas and family-centered assets. She additionally believes that Pasco, and by proxy District 2, as “Florida’s Sports activities Coast” is a good suggestion and that she, “would like to see that proceed to develop.”
“That would come with extra year-round sports activities folks can play, services that provide good-paying jobs and extra choices for youth sports activities packages,” as some in our space (just like the Wesley Chapel Athletic Affiliation’s youth baseball and softball packages) can’t deal with the entire youngsters who need to play. She believes that the Wesley Chapel District Park is at most capability, saying that though it’s an amazing facility, parking and site visitors “will be difficult.”
“We want extra [sports] choices within the District. The Wiregrass Ranch Sports activities Campus has been incredible,” however its main perform is to offer a location for sports activities tourism. “What we want are extra inexperienced areas and fields all through the world.”
She says that if proposed large-scale developments are unwilling to incorporate parks and college websites of their communities, she would, “Vote No!” She believes that the BCC is accountable for the over-development of Pasco County and Wesley Chapel specifically. “Sure, lots of people have been shifting right here, and management has been swept up in that,” she says, however the commissioners ought to have tried more durable to manage Pasco’s development.
The Backside Line? Neglect Politics
For Vazquez, this race isn’t actually about politics. “It’s private,” she says. “I’m not backed by large cash. I’m not right here to make offers behind closed doorways. I’m right here to struggle for each household who seems like their voices have been drowned out. Pasco belongs to all of us, it’s time to take it again.”
She provides, nonetheless, that she is aware of it received’t be a simple struggle to win.
“Since there’s at present a Republican majority, not solely in Pasco County, however in Florida and the Federal Authorities,” she says, “I do know it might probably really feel like we’re simply little blue dots in a sea of pink, however the fact is, there are extra of us than we notice. And I’m not simply speaking about Democrats. Voters with no get together affiliation, independents and even longtime Republicans are beginning to transfer away from the noise and division and towards one thing higher: folks over get together, progress over politics and group over chaos. All of us need the identical fundamentals — sturdy faculties, secure neighborhoods and sincere management. And people aren’t pink or blue points. They’re folks points. Win or lose, I’m proud to be combating for that.”
When requested about working throughout the aisle, with an in any other case pink majority, Vazquez says that her background proves she’s able to doing simply that. “I labored with (District 1 Commissioner) Ron Oakley efficiently for a few years after I was with the Pasco County Fee on Human Trafficking. It’s concerning the work we’re doing and who we’re doing it for.”
She provides, “I take heed to everybody, no matter who they voted for, and what political leanings they’ve.” In different phrases, she says, “Many points are by-and-large nonpartisan,” she says. “So, if you’d like completely different, vote for me!”
However, contemplating that the seat Vazquez is eyeing has not seen Democratic illustration but on this millennium, the stage is about for what could possibly be certainly one of Pasco County’s most intently watched fee races — particularly in gentle of the actual fact, Vazquez says, that Weightman received his first election, though he might have been residing outdoors the district through which he was elected, which might be a violation of a Florida Structure mandate.
“Commissioner Weightman purchased a property with a cellular dwelling in District 2 throughout his marketing campaign, however lots of people in Pasco say he doesn’t truly reside there, and that he nonetheless lives at his longtime dwelling in Dade Metropolis, which is outdoors the district. It’s raised actual considerations about whether or not he’s really representing the group he was elected to serve and that he could also be violating residency necessities for holding the seat.”
Meet the Candidate
In case you’d like to satisfy Vazquez, she’s going to formally launch her marketing campaign at a public kickoff occasion on Tuesday, Might 20, 6 p.m., at Meals on Wheels, 38112 fifteenth Ave., Zephyrhills. This system will start at 6:30 p.m. and attendees are inspired (however not required) to deliver nonperishable meals donations to help Meals on Wheels.
On the occasion, Vazquez stated she could have what she describes as a “Imaginative and prescient Board” — not one thing together with her imaginative and prescient, however a clean board the place attendees can write how they envision a greater Pasco County. “I like public suggestions,” she says.
In case you’re not in a position to attend that occasion however want to hear Vazquez’s viewpoints and opinions on sure matters, search “Stephanie Vazquez Pasco” on Instagram, the place she posts typically. Or, scan the QR code (left) to entry her marketing campaign kickoff occasion web page.
