Christine Jennings

Jennings founded, led and sold Sarasota Bank at a time when banking was a man’s world, then surprised her conservative clients by running for Congress as a Democrat, losing to Vern Buchanan by just 368 votes. After another failed try, she helped revive the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, righting the books, recruiting donors and gamely grooving to Motown tunes at fund raisers. Brilliant at dialing for dollars (grown men tremble when her name comes up on caller ID), she’s now building a war chest as chair of the Sarasota’s Democratic Party.