Ballard holds D2 campaign contribution lead as August primary approaches

With qualifying week behind them and the August Primary Election less than eight weeks away, the field is set for the Manatee County Commission District 2 race.

Three candidates have qualified to run for the seat. Republican incumbent Amanda Ballard and Republican challenger Edward Bailey will face off in the August 18 primary, with the winner advancing to the November General Election against Democratic candidate and former commissioner, Charles Smith.

Campaign finance reports filed to date show Ballard leading the District 2 field in fundraising—and ranking among the top three fundraisers among all county commission races—with more than $51,000 reported as of the latest filing period. Her campaign contributions come from a mix of businesses, individuals, political committees, and multiple elected officials.

Among all county commission candidates, Ballard trails only District 4 Republican incumbent Mike Rahn, who has reported over $61,000 as of the most recent reporting period. The third-highest fundraiser is District 6 at-large Republican candidate Tara Poulton, who has reported approximately $41,000.

Ballard's campaign has raised more than twice the amount reported by her Republican primary opponent, Bailey, who has reported just over $22,000, with most contributions coming from local individuals, businesses, and self-loans. Smith has reported about $8,000 in campaign funds.

Incumbent Republican Amanda Ballard

Elected in 2022, Ballard became the first Republican to represent the historically minority District 2 since it was established approximately 30 years earlier.  It was the first election after a Republican-dominated board had redrawn the district. She was one of three commissioners elected that year who had hired Tampa-based political consultant Anthony Pedicini. Following that year's election, all seven Republican members of the county commission had won their elections with Pedicini serving as their political strategist.

Before joining the commission, Ballard worked as a Manatee County child-welfare attorney representing the State of Florida. Drawing from her professional background, Ballard's first term focused on issues including homelessness, addiction recovery, public safety, and District 2 investments and community projects. Some of the initiatives she has helped advance include the opening of the Under One Roof women's shelter, the establishment of the Bookmobile program, the purchase of Mixon Fruit Farm, and the creation of the Elwood Park community garden.

Ballard’s first term coincided with a period of increased public scrutiny of the county's relationship with the development industry. In 2023, TBT reported that her husband, David Ballard, then the Government Affairs and Membership Director for the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association (BIA), attended a meeting with county development officials and BIA CEO Jon Mast, where Mast submitted a white paper proposing revisions to the county’s land development code. 

Ballard’s first-term voting record has also faced some criticism. In 2023, she sided with the then-board majority to approve measures that kept impact fees from being raised to the maximum amount and eliminated local wetland protections, deferring to the state minimum requirements. Both actions generated significant public backlash heading into the 2024 primary election, in which each candidate who had supported the measures was voted out of office.

Under the newly seated commission elected in 2024, Ballard reversed her earlier positions and voted to reinstate stronger local wetland protections and to support increasing development impact fees, neither of which could be accomplished because of preemption bills that had since been passed by the state legislature.

In seeking a second term, Ballard has pledged to forgo political consultants, relying instead on family and volunteers, and is campaigning on her commitment to continue focusing on infrastructure, public safety, and quality-of-life initiatives.

Ballard’s $51,470 in campaign contributions have come from fewer than 100 reported transactions. Her donors include residents, businesses, political committees, and local individuals connected to agriculture, real estate, construction, education, and housing or development-related industries, as well as people with ties to Manatee County government and local elected offices.

Among Ballard’s largest contributions were related donors making maximum contributions. Those included five $1,000 contributions from individuals and a business associated with the Palmetto Canning Company, as well as five affordable housing-related LLCs sharing the same Sarasota address, each contributing $1,000. A separate individual associated with the same Sarasota address also contributed $1,000.

Additional maximum contributions came from other individuals whose reported occupations are in the affordable housing industry, including contributors from Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Ballard’s campaign also received maximum $1,000 contributions from six political committees: Hillsborough United, Knowledge Is Power, Florida Courage, and three Realtor-affiliated committees—the Realtors Political Action Committee, the Realtors Political Activity Committee, and the Realtors Political Advocacy Committee.

The campaign has also received support from individuals with connections to local elected offices, agriculture and other local business interests, including Janet Mixon of the Mixon Fruit Farms family, Woodruff & Sons Inc, Florida House District 72 Rep. Bill Conerly, former Manatee County Deputy Administrator Courtney De Pol, Bob Spencer of West Coast Tomato, and Whiting Preston, a local farmer and developer who conceived the master plan for West Bradenton’s largest upcoming developments, the SeaFlower.

Bailey previously served as an aide to District 5 Commissioner Bob McCann, but resigned the position to launch his campaign. According to his campaign website, Bailey assisted McCann with constituent services, researching county issues, coordinating projects, and serving as a liaison between the commission office, county staff, and residents.

Bailey has focused his campaign on preserving home rule, managing growth, protecting water resources, addressing traffic congestion, and opposing urban sprawl. He has said he is running to make county government more responsive to residents and less influenced by special interests.

If Bailey were to be elected to represent District 2 on the commission, he would become the youngest commissioner ever elected to the Manatee County Commission.

Bailey's fundraising has relied primarily on individual contributors rather than businesses or political committees. Campaign finance reports also show Bailey loaned his campaign roughly $11,000—accounting for nearly half of the funds reported to date.

Aside from Bailey's personal contributions/loans, most of his campaign’s support came from individual donors, many of whom had addresses in Bradenton, Parrish, Ellenton, Palmetto, Myakka City, and Sarasota. Only a small number of contributions originated from outside the Manatee County area. 

Bailey also received a $500 contribution from his former employer, Commissioner Bob McCann, and his wife, who also contributed $500.

Candidates in other county commission races also contributed to Bailey's campaign, including District 1 Republican candidate Liz Arnold, District 1 Republican candidate Michael Harrison, and District 6 Republican candidate Ed Ference.

Only one political committee (PAC) appears on Bailey’s financial reports; the candidate received a $500 contribution from the GrayRobinson, P.A., Florida Political Action Committee.

Campaign finance reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections show the GrayRobinson PAC contributed $500 in April to four Manatee County commission candidates: Bailey, Liz Arnold, Glen Gibellina, and John Calovich. The PAC later reported additional $500 contributions in June to the campaigns of Amanda Ballard and Mike Rahn, meaning it contributed to both Republican candidates in the District 2 and District 4 primary races.

Looking further back in the PAC’s financial reporting reveals that in 2020 it gave $500 to the Kevin Van Ostenbridge campaign, and in 2019 and 2025 it contributed $1,000 each cycle to Senator Jim Boyd’s campaign.

District 1 candidate Liz Arnold also told TBT that she returned the check after discovering who the contributor was.

Democratic Candidate Charles Smith

Charles Smith, the Democratic candidate in the District 2 race, previously represented the district on the Manatee County Commission from 2014 to 2018 after serving multiple terms on the Palmetto City Commission. He lost his bid for reelection in 2018 to Reggie Bellamy. In 2022, Smith again entered the District 2 race, competing in the Democratic primary against then-incumbent commissioner Bellamy.

Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Manatee Harvesting Co., a family-owned agricultural business, and has lived in Manatee County since childhood.

Smith has highlighted his business experience, as well as his prior public service and experience managing large public budgets, as qualifications for returning to office. His campaign platform emphasizes economic development, housing, infrastructure, and managed growth.

Of Smith’s roughly $8,000 in campaign funds, the majority has come through loans from his own company. Smith reported three loans from the company totaling $5,500.

The remainder of the campaign funds reported by Smith have come from individual contributors. His donors include several local residents, with contributions ranging from $50 to $500.

Though he has reported more modest fundraising than the Republican candidates in the race, Smith’s reported contributions to date have come entirely from individuals with Manatee County addresses. His donors include residents from Palmetto, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, and Ellenton.

To learn more about the qualified candidates in Manatee County races, including their reported campaign finance reports, visit the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections website, select the ‘local candidates and committees’ page.  

To view a calendar of dates in the 2026 campaign finance schedule, click here.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated Republican candidate Edward Bailey’s age. Bailey turned 22 on May 30. The story has been updated to reflect his correct age.