Gwen Henderson, an educator, and political newbie, asked her younger sister to hold the Bible during her Tampa City Council inauguration.
Favorite relatives usually get this. However, her sister was involved in a City Hall scandal, making it a significant request.
Henderson’s sister was an aide to council member Orlando Gudes, who denied making a litany of offensive, inappropriate, and sexual comments.
Henderson defeated incumbent Gudes on Election Day.
Henderson, who sprinted despite advice to wait her time, go elsewhere, or follow a Tampa Black community hierarchy, said Gudes was not the reason she ran.
Henderson, 58, added, “There are people that had silent rules: You shouldn’t run against him. “I gave Black people a choice.”
She and her sister worked for Carver City as teenagers on the west side of town. Her sister had to count Bayshore Boulevard sidewalk cracks in wealthy South Tampa. Their area lacked sidewalks and cash to repair them.
“My community fought for that,” she remarked.
In 1993, Vice President Al Gore visited Henderson in Tampa Heights with photographers.
Henderson converted a vagrant-trashed house into a pink and white home with an airy porch, fireplace, and modern kitchen using a city program to help low- and middle-income purchasers acquire low-interest home loans. The software made it possible, she told Gore.
Henderson is the vocational and technical education department head at Jefferson High, her alma school. Political veterans counseled against treating everyone as friends. No effect.
A negative encounter with code enforcement when she tried to acquire a new roof during the epidemic and a book she read called “Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide To Fixing the System” made her consider politics. It told her not to march. Run.
“I’m not super political,” she said. “I owe nobody.”
She ran against appointed Lynn Hurtak in the citywide campaign. Henderson entered. In the most heated City Council debate, former state legislator Janet Cruz, a Tampa celebrity and mother to Mayor Jane Castor’s domestic partner, opposed Hurtak.
The rival to Gudes for his seat representing East Tampa, Ybor City, downtown, and part of West Tampa—the only district with a majority of ethnic residents—dropped out.
Gudes was elected in 2019 after his aide reported disrespectful comments. Her appearance, her teenage daughter’s breast size, and the mayor’s homophobic remarks were alleged. Guides disputed most of the claims but confessed to “unprofessional” comments.
She threatened to fire him. He rejected resignation offers.
After finding a hostile environment, the city settled with the aide for $200,000. She switched departments.
Others supported Gudes. One dubbed it a page from “the age-old book of how to get rid of a Black man” at a meeting. According to Hillsborough NAACP president Yvette Lewis, city personnel targeted an African American.
Guides rejected the comment. Due to the allegations, the unnamed aide declined.
Henderson chose. Running citywide was expensive, Cruz was in the race, and she didn’t want Gude unchallenged.
“I can run where I want,” she remarked. “District 5 was the way to win.” After consulting her sister, she switched two days before the deadline.
“Signing the papers was easy,” she claimed.
“The closest thing we’ve ever had to a Black mayor,” said Tampa Bay History Center curator Fred Hearns. “That seat is the closest we’ve come to a Black person with that kind of power in the city.”
“That one Black or African-American seat,” claimed former council member and Hillsborough County commissioner Rev. Tom Scott.
“Gudes did some good stuff for the district,” Scott remarked. “Unfortunately, his negative outweighed his positive.”
Henderson said a portion of the community didn’t think Gudes did anything illegal on the campaign trail. Some thought the mayor encouraged her to run.
“I don’t know that lady,” she said.
She said some assumed she caused a negative Gude ad.
“You think I could afford that?” she said. “I never considered that.”
She also got help. “People said, ‘Oh, I like that girl,’” she said. Hearns claimed she deserved to lead. “We wanted somebody who could represent the district and not have a stigma,” Scott added. She won 80 votes.
The resistance continued after victory. Henderson’s election saddened an internet commenter. Another said dog. An email to council members accused Henderson of “disrespecting” and “slandering” Guides.
Henderson had to “coach girls to ignore the noise” as an educator. She acknowledged that some are grieving. Hearns stated Gwen doesn’t keep grudges. “She hears it, but it won’t affect her sitting on City Council.”
Lewis claimed a split exists presently. “But I look to the councilwoman to be the stronger person, the better person—to stand up to mend the hearts and go out and seek the ones who didn’t support her and show them that she is capable and qualified,” she said.
“A major divide,” said former state senator and County Commissioner Les Miller, a friend of Gude’s. “There’s some bitterness,” especially among people who feel horrible for Gudes and know Henderson’s sister.
“It’s time for all of us to rally around her to make sure she’s successful,” he said.
Miller remarked, “I was the only Black person on the board.” “Without support, you’re in trouble.”
In her first regular City Council meeting, the city bought Memorial Park Cemetery from a property flipper, resolving a sad Black community issue. Henderson thanked workers and “every single citizen that cares about Black bodies in the ground.”
“You’re going to walk in that door and square your shoulders and tell the world you survived,” she instructed her sister during the swearing-in. They cuddled after the oath.
Henderson felt cheering would assist her. We won.”
