Kelly Semrad
Kelly Semrad is a member of the Orange County Board of County Commissioners in Florida, representing District 5. She assumed office on December 3, 2024. Her current term ends in 2028.
Semrad ran for election to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners to represent District 5 in Florida. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Semrad completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Kelly Semrad was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin. She earned a high school diploma from Oconomowoc High School, a bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2000, a graduate degree from St. Thomas University in 2003, and a Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida in 2010. Her career experience includes working as a professor.[1][2]
Semrad has been affiliated with the following organizations:[2]
- Save Orange County, Inc.
- District 5 Neighborhood Advisory Council
- UFF-UCF
- Sierra Club
- League of Women Voters
- Save Split Oak Forest
- The Right to Clean Water
- Greater Orlando NOW
- Protect Shingle Creek
- UCF Faculty Senate & Steering Committee
- Rainbow Dems
- OC Democratic Black Caucus
- FL Rising
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2024)
General election
General election for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 5
Kelly Semrad defeated Steven Leary in the general election for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kelly Semrad (Nonpartisan)  | 57.5 | 57,652 |
| Steven Leary (Nonpartisan) | 42.5 | 42,549 | ||
| Total votes: 100,201 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 5
Kelly Semrad and Steven Leary defeated Joy Goff-Marcil and Joel Montilla in the primary for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 5 on August 20, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kelly Semrad (Nonpartisan) | 41.1 | 12,168 |
| ✔ | Steven Leary (Nonpartisan) | 31.6 | 9,366 | |
 | Joy Goff-Marcil (Nonpartisan) | 15.5 | 4,596 | |
 | Joel Montilla (Nonpartisan) | 11.8 | 3,490 | |
| Total votes: 29,620 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Semrad received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Semrad's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here.
2022
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2022)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Orange County
Incumbent Jerry Demings won election outright against Chris Messina, Kelly Semrad, and Tony Sabb in the primary for Mayor of Orange County on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jerry Demings (Nonpartisan) | 60.1 | 110,973 |
| Chris Messina (Nonpartisan) | 21.5 | 39,796 | ||
| Kelly Semrad (Nonpartisan) | 9.3 | 17,242 | |
| Tony Sabb (Nonpartisan) | 9.1 | 16,781 | ||
| Total votes: 184,792 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kelly Semrad completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Semrad's responses.
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- As an international tourism expert, I have a unique skillset to best serve our community. Our County is the #1 tourism destination receiving 75 million tourists a year. Currently, there's no tourism expert advocating for our community that sits on the County Commission. I will fill this void.
I'm advocating for our TDT to be used for projects that improve our quality of life (e.g., infrastructure & mass transit). I have the experience necessary to help accomplish this for our community.
I have the expertise to bring tourism economic change to help alleviate poverty as opposed to be the catalyst that generates it. It's time that our local tourism economy work for us-not special interests. - As Vice Chair of Save Orange County & the Co-Chair of District 5 Neighborhood Association, I have an unwavering commitment to end urban sprawl. Irresponsible development has caused harm to our community resulting in a $22 billion infrastructure deficit. Sprawl has caused a lack of affordable housing, environmental destruction, crowded schools, failing roads & transit, rising costs of living, polluted water, & more. I'm holding developers accountable to meet community's needs & require that development pay for itself. All land use plan amendments will be fiscally assessed to ensure taxpayers aren't burdened. Community vision, affordability, & saving natural resources will be required in land use plans.
- As the initiator of the 2024 Rural Boundary Charter Amendment, I'm standing up for our community & environment. For years, I have defended our natural lands & will continue to do so as Commissioner. As a District 5 Citizen of the Year, I stand with community & our vision for responsible development that meets our needs & conserves our natural resources. Rural communities will remain rural. Urban areas need multi modal transportation to help alleviate traffic & increase pedestrian safety. I'm advocating for tax reform to use our tourist tax money to get a mass transit system that works for us while moving tourists through our local economy. I'm fighting for housing for all & better paying jobs.
- Economic policies to address rising costs
- Tourist tax reform to fund our infrastructure & transit
- Affordable housing policies to address our housing crisis
- Land use policies to stop irresponsible development
- Fiscal policies to address a rising infrastructure deficit
- Small business policies to support our local economy
- Environmental policies to conserve natural resources & provide wildlife habitat
- Wetland conservation to prevent flooding
- Water quality policies to ensure all residents have access to clean affordable water
- Equality policies for all
- Poverty & mental health policies to help people experiencing homelessness
Public service requires an individual to be self-aware & constantly improve themself to best serve their community. Clear & open communication is vital in order to bring the community's voice to the commission.
I serve on socio economic teams that restructure tourism economies across the globe to help benefit local residents. We helped create the world's 1st blue destination, helped ban plastic straws & bags as well as harmful sunscreens that destroy coral reefs. We also helped advocate & promote LGBTQ+ marriage rights in the Caribbean.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2022
Kelly Semrad completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Semrad's responses.
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Kelly is a mom and comes from Mexican heritage (family name: Martinez). She strongly supports the Split Oak Forest and Rights of Nature: Right to Clean Water County Constitutional Amendments that citizens mandated in 2020. Kelly opposes the sales tax increase (Penny Tax). Her major platform is putting the needs of people first followed by protecting our environment. She is the only mayoral candidate refusing donations from special interests, developers, and builders. Kelly is forwarding policy reform initiatives that put people's needs and the environmental protection in front of special interest greed.
- As mayor, I'll ensure that people's needs, voters' will, & environmental protection are our local government's priorities. I'm the only candidate refusing special interest & developers' donations. As mayor, I'll be accountable to only the people. Within my leadership, special interests & developers will need to adhere to the will of our people and the protection of our environment. I'm not running for mayor because I endeavored to be a politician. I'm running because our people shouldn't have to fight to have quality of life, equity amongst all, and environmental protection. The only way to put people first in this county is with policy reform that follows a bottom-up approach from the people to the elected officials.
- As mayor, I have the expertise with a PhD in Hospitality Management (UCF) to maximize the benefits our tourism industry brings to our communities and people. Traditionally, the County has used our tourist development tax (TDT) to fund our Convention Center expansion and for subsidies for Visit Orlando. Other communities around FL and the USA have used this tax to help fund community needs (e.g., busing, roads, housing, public safety, etc.) In accordance with state statutes, I’ll lead the restructuring of our TDT to support our community needs and nonprofits contributing to the tourism industry (e.g., arts).
- As mayor, I’ll lead policy reform that works for our people & environment. For example, the Board of County Commissioner (BCC) meetings should occur at a time/day when people can attend without taking time off work. Additionally, we must recognize that not all people can get to the County Administrative Building to participate in meetings. I’ll encourage participation within our local government by enabling mixed mode policy participation (e.g., face-to-face, virtual). Third, we need ordinances and/or Charter Amendments that will protect our rural lands, natural resources (e.g., water/wetlands), wildlife, & environment. We need to ensure that our services are available to those in need that have no vote (e.g. homeless, children, animals).
1. Policy reform that maximizes providing for the needs of our people, public safety, honoring voters' will, & protecting our environment. (Policy for Quality of Life, Equity, & Environment).
2. Policy reform that guarantees our number one economic contributor (tourism and hospitality industry) benefits & services our community's needs as opposed to private profit.
3. Policy reform that removes special interests & developers' greed from coming before our people & environment.
4. Policy reform that investigates District Commissioner elections. For example, our citizens can only vote on one District Commissioner, yet all six District Commissioners get to vote on what happens in our districts. This is representation without accountability. We cannot keep other District Commissioners in office if they do a good job representing our district & we cannot remove them if they do a bad a job representing our District. My goal is to ensure representation with accountability. This must be thoroughly examined to guarantee that no race or ethnicity voice/vote is minimized.
5. Policy reform for a rural boundary within our County Charter (County Constitution).
6. Policy reform to ensure that we have a permanent source of funding for mass transit improvements that is not about raising tax on our citizens.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 5 |
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