Alan Henderson, who’ll turn 24 years old next month, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that on Wednesday, Jan. 3 he intends to file his statement of candidacy in downtown Tampa where he’ll also hold a 10:30 a.m. press conference in Joe Chillura Courthouse Square.
If elected in 2027, Henderson would be Tampa’s first Black mayor. Castor won a second term in March 2023, but is term-limited.
In a social media post, Henderson—whose role leading an esports company landed him on a Tampa Bay Business Journal list of young residents to watch—said his vision is centered around empowering communities, sustainability, and “building the Tampa of tomorrow today.”
That could mean anything from affordability, to housing, and transportation; Henderson told CL that people he’s talked to in the exploratory phase of his candidacy have not been very happy with any of those things.
Still, he’s not looking to come out of the gate saying how he would fix things. Instead Henderson hopes to listen and gain a better understanding of citizens’ issues. To do that, he plans to spend the next year building a robust team to coordinate policy development and meet with experts and citizens. “We’re going to organize some detailed conversations about what the Tampa of tomorrow could look like,” he added.
“Personally, I don’t believe Tampa should be run like a business. It should be run like a government. And I think part of where we missed the mark is all these investments in high-profile areas and the parts that make us a lot of money,” he told CL. “You need to be investing in the people. I think the underlying goal of my campaign is to make sure that the people of the city—not the 1% but the 99%—are the ones where we’re paying our attention to the most.”
While the mayoral race is nonpartisan, Henderson said he is a registered Democrat.
“I’m not necessarily ashamed of it, but I recognize that there’s a lot of implications that come with just stating, ‘This is my party affiliation’ that truly might not resonate with my particular views on any one issue,” he said, adding that at least in general his social policies definitely lean more Democratic. “I think, as a business owner, maybe some of my perspectives resonate more with one side versus the other. But above all, as a people person, I think that a lot of my views are pretty centrist and will resonate with most people.”
He’s invited members of the local Democratic chamber to Wednesday’s press conference, and hopes to have the party’s support.
“I want my campaign to be about the future of our city and being optimistic about what we can all work together on,” he said. “I recognize that as an outsider, they probably have their plans for 2027, that may already be kind of in motion, but I just hope that my vision will resonate with the city.”
Henderson is the first to publicly share plans to run for mayor, but there’s already speculation that Tampa City Councilmembers Bill Carlson and Luis Viera might make a run. Other names that have been floated include Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez, County Commissioner Harry Cohen, former County Commissioner Pat Kemp, two-term Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, and former state Rep. Sean Shaw.
Last November, Kemp and Shaw respectively lost races for the U.S. House of Representatives and Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.
A year ago, Viera told WMNF public affairs program The Skinny that the race was too far away to be committal about. Four months later, Carlson also told WMNF that the race was too far away to commit to anything. Two months after Carlson’s comment, Cohen told WMNF he thinks more about running for re-election to the county commission than he does about trying again to be mayor of Tampa.
On Thursday night, Viera told CL that the 2027 mayoral race is the farthest thing on his mind, and that he is focused on helping his constituents recover after Hurricane Milton.
“Working class Tampa and North Tampa was devastated by Milton. My top goals now are transparency on what happened, advocating for assistance for those working class Tampeños who lost everything and long term planning to preserve affordable and workforce housing in North Tampa,” Viera said.
Carlson told CL that he will announce his plans this year.
While Henderson has called for more transparency and increased data when it comes to how police engage with citizens, he is not interested in launching a campaign that is focused on criticising the current administration. “I have a deep, deep respect for leadership that decides to step up at all,” he added.
And that’s why he’s stepping up after spending 23 years in Tampa.
Henderson was born at Tampa General Hospital according to his campaign page. He told CL that h e went to Williams Middle Magnet School, Brandon High and Hillsborough Community College and that he is currently enrolled in courses about U.S. public policy, social policy, leadership and impact at the Harvard Kennedy School. He won some superlative awards in high school, where he was in the TV productions club, but has never run for an elected office.
Henderson—whose first job was at Bern’s Steak House’s Harry Waugh Dessert Room—is not sure which neighborhood he’ll start knocking on doors in first, but on Wednesday he’ll be surrounded by friends, family, and the network he’s grown working in esports.
He will miss one person, however. His mom, Coretta Henderson, passed in 2023 and had a masters in social work from the University of South Florida. “She was great. My number one cheerleader—and I know she’d be really proud,” he said.
In the meantime, Henderson, a self-described lifelong learner, hopes to spend the next two years in the streets just listening.
“I’m truly fascinated by the resilience, the work ethic, and the history of our city. I’m hoping to put myself in a position to really listen to the experts that have been championing the work that’s got us to where we are,” he said, “but then equally be in a position to contribute ideas that can help take us further.”
This is a developing story.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
![Alan Henderson officially files to run for mayor, saying, ‘Tampa doesn’t just end on Ashley Drive or Water Street’ [PHOTOS]](https://i0.wp.com/www.cltampa.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/alan_henderson-8.webp?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1)
Related Stories
Op-ed: Tampa mayoral candidate says ‘public dedications should reflect collective effort, not political choreography’
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2025.