(PENSACOLA) --- Pensacola Mayoral candidate Jasmine Brown wants answers.
Over time, disturbing questions led the local to consider challenging the incumbent and five other candidates for the head seat on the dais in the upcoming election.
Those questions began at home.
"I saw my parents work so hard, but they were still concerned about bills," Brown said. "I worked a variety of jobs as a server, hotel worker, and administrative assistant, and saw that the workers who had the most taxing jobs got paid the least, which didn't make sense to me."
(Photo: Jasmine Brown)
Social media also raised questions.
"Online, I became more aware of the many crises of the world, and I couldn't make sense of it besides 'everything sucks,'" Brown said, adding that a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in the name of George Floyd, Tymar Crawford, and others also made her more aware of systemic racism.
More questions arose when she was in college.
Why should any resource be over-extracted and exploited? Why do people suffer so much? Why, when there is research, resources, and people power, does the system continue not to make sense?
The questions started to lead to answers.
"Because it's not structured around meeting people's needs or solving problems, it's just structured around endless profit at the expense of everyone and everything else," Brown said.
Then the most important question: how could she play a role in changing this system?
"All of these significant moments in my life contributed to developing my political consciousness," Brown said.
(Photo: Jasmine Brown)
By 2022, Brown became politically active, protesting at town hall meetings against Florida Power and Light (FPL) and demanding that officials conduct a feasibility study.
"Our city leadership refused to even look into it, and today our entire community gets robbed by FPL every month," Brown said. "That is an issue I would love to take on as mayor."
"My campaign is about empowering people to know that they actually can make a difference – not just at the ballot box every couple of years, but in their day-to-day activity," Brown said.
The candidate refuses to let the political madness around her stop her.
People are seeing the failures of our government at every level, according to Brown, adding that historically it has been easy for one political party to blame another — the Republican leaders blame the Democrats, the Democratic leaders blame the Republicans — or for corporate media and the political system to get the public to blame one another.
She has a plan: reject the system's divide-and-conquer philosophy.
"Instead of dividing on all these bases, we can actually unite to face the overwhelming problems of affordability, of democratic participation in society, of who owns our future," Brown said.
Brown's campaign pillars are affordable housing, budget, and immigration.
(Photo: Jasmine Brown)
"Pensacola takes an approach that our homes should be for people, not for profit," Brown said. "For too long, this city has been openly run by and for developers."
Under her watch, building luxury developments that ignore the community's needs and price them out of their homes will end.
"We have seen it with Aragon, we have seen it with the Tanyard, with Belmont-Devilliers, with Hawkshaw Village, and we see the efforts the city is making to do the same with the former Baptist campus," Brown said, adding the Fricker Center, Attucks Court, and the East Side Neighborhood are in jeopardy.
"My platform flows directly from the fights we've waged to try to preserve Malcolm Yonge Gym, to address housing affordability," Brown said. "Our community members know we have a problem, and we have to keep organizing until we change that problem."
Next comes expanding democratic participation in local city politics, specifically in budget decisions.
"We want our city to weigh in on how our budget is allocated," Brown said.
That calls for increased public participation.
"We cannot allow 'workshops' where the city pitches ideas to us to substitute for meaningful participation," Brown said. "We need real seats at the table, at the ground floor of city planning."
Her last, and most controversial, pillar protects foreigners.
"My platform is the only platform that directly addresses the attacks on our immigrant community," Brown said.
The candidate said the brutalization of immigrants, regardless of legal status, and the racist smear campaign that justifies it, is nothing but a disgusting divide-and-conquer tactic, enabling billionaires and big bosses to rob the public blind while pointing the finger at someone else.
"Our city leadership has a duty to stand for everyone in this city, including our immigrant neighbors, and fight for an end to this unnecessary terror campaign that has already caused so much death and destruction around the county," Brown said.
Brown's family is a source of inspiration at every step along the campaign trail against the other six candidates.
(Photo: Escambia County Board of Elections)
"Both of my parents demonstrated continued selflessness my whole life. My mom has been a devoted factory worker for nearly 35 years and was my cheerleading coach in between working hours when I was younger," Brown said.
Though he is deceased, Brown's father, a county school bus driver, witnessed how some students' behavioral issues stemmed from poverty and an unjust system.
"Toward the end of his life, he created a program titled after our family sports team number, called Mission 21: Think Twice, Speak Once," Brown said. "This program was designed to model and teach young students how to control their anger by acknowledging the daily source of their intense emotions and providing skills to manage themselves to avoid consequences."
Following in her family's footsteps, Brown is resolved not to back down.
"This is a difficult time to step up because of all the problems, but it's also an opportunity," Brown said. "People are ready for solutions that will allow us to live dignified and peaceful lives, where we can raise healthy, happy families and access food, education, healthcare, and entertainment."
As for all those questions that led her here, Brown has one answer for creating real change.
(Photo: Jasmine Brown)
"It's totally possible; we just have to get organized to make it a reality," Brown said.
Get to know Brown more at her campaign website here.
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