St. Petersburg Mayoral Election

St. Petersburg, Florida voters cast ballots Tuesday to decide whether incumbent Mayor Ken Welch earns a second term or a challenger takes over city hall. Welch, in office since January 2022, is campaigning on housing and public safety successes but faces criticism over hurricane recovery, water billing errors, and a collapsed ballpark deal.

His challengers include former Governor and Congressman Charlie Crist, Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard, former NAACP St. Pete president Maria Scruggs, former fire chief Jim Large, and neighborhood leader Kevin Batdorf. Crist, an early polling frontrunner, is emphasizing affordability, education, and dissatisfaction with the city's response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Batdorf has built momentum criticizing the administration's storm response, while Gabbard focuses on infrastructure and utility costs. Large points to his tenure as fire chief despite past controversy over workplace conduct complaints, and Scruggs emphasizes community partnerships for economic growth.

If no candidate wins a majority Tuesday, the race advances to a runoff decided in November's general election.

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, who trails former Gov. Charlie Crist in polling and campaign fundraising after finishing behind him in the August primary, is making his case for re-election ahead of the November runoff. Welch says being outspent, partly amid a scandal involving a former PAC treasurer accused of misusing $200,000 in campaign funds, allowed opponents to distort his record. The FBI has located the former treasurer, who faces a hearing in Pennsylvania.

Welch points to challenges during his term, including COVID-19, supply chain disruptions, five hurricanes, and the stalled Tropicana Field/Historic Gas Plant redevelopment, which he blames on the previous Tampa Bay Rays ownership walking away from a 12-agreement deal. He also defended his hurricane response, citing a state award for debris removal, and dismissed criticism over his city hall attendance record. Looking ahead, Welch is campaigning on five priorities: housing, youth and education, sustainability, economic development, and neighborhood safety, while warning that a property tax measure on the ballot could cut city services.

A Democratic-backed super PAC has poured $2 million into ads attacking Florida Sen. Ashley Moody over her record on releasing Jeffrey Epstein's files, featuring survivor Marina Lacerda questioning Moody's priorities. The ad notes Moody joined other Republicans in blocking a September 2025 measure tied to the defense budget, but omits that the Senate later approved a standalone release bill by unanimous consent. The National Republican Senatorial Committee called the ads false and misleading, saying Moody ultimately supported transparency legislation. Epstein-related ads have run in 63 congressional races nationally, totaling $76 million.

With Election Day days away, Moody faces Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist who accuses Moody of refusing to debate and of involvement in misappropriating $10 million in Medicaid funds, which Moody denies. Moody has campaigned with gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, branding Nixon a communist, a label Nixon rejects.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) won her party's primary in Florida's newly drawn 20th Congressional District, a plurality-Black seat centered on Broward County, after her old 25th District seat was eliminated in Republican-led mid-decade redistricting ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Rather than run in a new, whiter district that favored Trump, she chose to compete in the 20th, drawing criticism from local Black leaders, the Broward Black Democratic Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus members who saw her candidacy as a threat to Black political representation already weakened by the Supreme Court's rollback of the Voting Rights Act; Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to endorse her.

Wasserman Schultz defeated a divided field of four Black challengers — former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, rapper Luther "Luke" Campbell, Elijah Manley, and Dale Holness — leaning on seniority, fundraising, and an Appropriations Committee seat while her rivals split the opposing vote. Her win makes her the only white House member representing a plurality or majority-Black district heading into 2027, following the elimination of Rep. Steve Cohen's Memphis district by Tennessee Republicans. The broader Florida redistricting effort cut four Democratic-leaning seats ahead of the midterms.

Florida lawmakers passed more than 200 bills this session, with a batch of new laws on crime and public safety set to take effect October 1. Among the most notable is HB 429, which broadens the criteria for classifying someone as a criminal gang member, allowing designation based on social media activity, repeated association with known gang members, or identification by a parent, guardian, or spouse. Critics, including State Rep. Michele Rayner, warned the law could sweep up people not actually involved in gang activity.

Also taking effect is HB 397, sponsored by State Rep. Dan Daley, which creates a new criminal offense for violating pretrial "no-contact" orders in violent crime cases such as murder, assault, stalking, kidnapping, robbery, and sexual battery, and allows warrantless arrests when probable cause exists. These two measures join ten other new laws addressing rental fraud, license plates, animal cruelty, and firearms.

President Donald Trump drew a large crowd to the Mitchell Center in Mobile, Alabama, returning to the city where he held an early breakout rally during his 2016 campaign. The stop kicked off a broader fall campaign push ahead of the November midterms, with the White House planning near-daily appearances in competitive states.

Trump used the rally to back Senator Tommy Tuberville in his gubernatorial bid against former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, Representative Barry Moore's campaign for Tuberville's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, and state Representative Rhett Marques, who is running for Alabama's redrawn 2nd Congressional District currently held by Democratic Representative Shomari Figures. Republicans see the seat as a pickup opportunity following redistricting.

Earlier in the day, Governor Kay Ivey and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy broke ground on the $3.2 billion Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project. Strategists noted the rally's location also extends media reach into the conservative Florida Panhandle, reinforcing turnout momentum for Republicans heading into election day.

The St. Petersburg, Florida City Council voted to raise utility rates for residents, with increases for potable water, stormwater, wastewater, reclaimed water, and sanitation services taking effect Oct. 1. City officials said the higher rates are needed to fund essential operations and routine maintenance across the city's utility systems.

The vote was not unanimous, and public comment at Thursday's meeting was uniformly opposed, with residents citing strain on fixed incomes. Depending on water usage, monthly bills are expected to rise between $8 and $14. Council Member Gina Driscoll pushed to skip a year of increases, while Council Member Copley Gerdes argued that delaying upgrades would risk infrastructure failure. The city reviews utility rates annually, and Driscoll noted that future rates could be affected by the outcome of a property tax amendment on November's general election ballot.

Charity Hospital, the New Orleans landmark abandoned after Hurricane Katrina, is set for redevelopment as Louisiana marks the storm's 21st anniversary. Tulane University is leading a $500 million project to convert the 1930s art deco building into a medical research hub, with labs for hundreds of researchers, classrooms, and space for biomedical startups. Construction is expected to begin this fall, with completion targeted for 2029.

The hospital's closure has long symbolized Katrina's toll on the city's health care system: patients and staff were trapped inside for days without power as floodwaters covered roughly 80% of New Orleans. Previous redevelopment attempts stalled for years. City and university leaders now frame the project as a milestone in recovery, alongside nearby Katrina-era hospital sites like Lindy Boggs Medical Center, recently demolished, and the former Memorial hospital, now Ochsner Baptist. Tulane leaders, including President Michael Fitts and medical school dean Lee Hamm, say the effort honors the hospital's legacy as a safety-net provider while positioning New Orleans as a hub for biomedical innovation benefiting the wider Gulf South.

Harris County commissioners gave initial approval to spend $3 million in local tax dollars on three community safety initiatives — HART, RISE, and the county's Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention programs — after federal budget cuts and declining philanthropic giving threatened their survival. Final approval is expected Thursday, alongside a proposed 7.6% property tax increase meant partly to cover the programs and close a $180 million budget deficit.

The programs, created after the George Floyd protests, have shown measurable results: HART has diverted thousands of hours from deputies and EMS while connecting over 5,000 residents to care; RISE neighborhoods saw a 36% drop in crime; and domestic violence programs have assisted more than 5,000 survivors. The new funding raises total annual investment to roughly $14 million.

The move comes as federal support collapses — the Department of Justice terminated hundreds of grants worth about $500 million nationwide, with Harris and Fort Bend counties alone losing roughly $4 million. Advocates warn that without local or state backing, similar safety-net programs in surrounding rural counties could disappear entirely.