Melissa Rutland is attempting to flip a House seat that hasn’t been held by a Republican for years, and she’s doing so in a year that’s not expected to be friendly to her Republican Party.

But Rutland is banking on her robust background as a small-business owner and leader, and as a devout member of the St. Pete community who has been appointed to numerous positions by elected officials on both sides of the aisle, to overcome what are expected to be challenges for the GOP across the nation this year.

And she’s got something else on her side: numbers. House District 60 has been trending away from Democrats in recent years, and is now essentially split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, at 35% voter representation each.

Rutland is the sole Republican running in HD 60 after incumbent Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross announced in early June that she would not seek re-election. Rutland faces Lindsay Polega-Quigley in the November General Election.

Florida Politics spoke with Rutland to learn more about her background and her campaign priorities.

Three things stood out: Rutland has been highly involved in the St. Pete community for years, she has enjoyed support from both major political parties, and she doesn’t sound like a Republican, at least not in the way people have come to expect under President Donald Trump’s GOP.

Community involvement

Rutland has a strong record of community involvement. In 2015, she was also appointed by Mayor Rick Kriseman, a Democrat, to the St. Petersburg Development Review Commission, where she served for nearly a decade, including a stint as its first female Chair.

In 2023, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis also appointed Rutland to the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, and she also serves on the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership Board of Directors. She also previously served on the St. Petersburg Area YMCA Board for a decade, and on the Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital Foundation. She currently serves on the Rotary Club of St. Pete.

She also previously served on Boards for the St Petersburg Museum of History and Florida CCIM West Coast, and as Treasurer of Babycycle, a nonprofit supporting local families with young children.

“I have been involved because my family, that’s just what we do. I just was brought up that way,” Rutland said.

She also worked extensively on a joint venture between Pinellas County Schools and the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg to establish a facility that serves both YMCA members and about 500 middle school students, at the Speer YMCA and Mangrove Bay Middle School facility, which opened in 2024 to significant fanfare for the nearly 112,000-square-foot facility.

Rutland also worked with local leaders for years to land a Whole Foods in her community, on 38th Avenue and 4th Street.

“I have the expertise to know the questions to ask, who to partner with, and how to translate ideas into real-world solutions,” she said.

Business experience

Rutland’s family helped build St. Petersburg’s business community through Rutland Brothers Department Store, Rutland’s men’s store on Central Avenue, and St. Petersburg Bank & Trust, which eventually became Rutland Bank.

In 2015, Rutland launched the Rutland Florida Gulf Group, focusing on commercial real estate investments. Rutland began her career in the real estate department of Raymond James headquarters. Now, she has spent roughly two decades in commercial real estate brokerage, asset management, development and consulting.

“When the opportunity arose, I saw the chance to make a difference, because I’m already doing it in the background,” Rutland said. “I’ve got great ideas. Sometimes in Tallahassee the good ideas are not always translated in the bill drafting process and I think I have the skills to fix that. That’s why I jumped in.”

“I think it’s time for us to have a little bit of real-world experience up there in someone that can implement commonsense policies,” she added.

Solutions aren’t partisan

Rutland is a Republican, but she’s not loud about it. In fact, she told Florida Politics that when she first began telling people she was running in the HD 60 race, they immediately praised her decision before pausing to ask a question.

“They would be like, ‘Wait, are you a Republican or a Democrat,’” she recalled with a chuckle.

“Solutions aren’t partisan,” is a slogan of sorts for Rutland, and when she talks about “commonsense solutions,” it doesn’t sound as much like political talking points as one might expect in this day and age of polarized politics.

“Common sense is just taking the low-hanging fruit and implementing something that we’re not already doing, that we could be doing. It’s taking the issues that matter most to the people and translating it into legislation in Tallahassee,” Rutland said.

That, she said, includes work on what she describes as her three pillars: quality of life and affordability, infrastructure, and the economy and business climate.

“There are high housing costs and insurance and inflation, there is just so much,” she said. “I don’t know that there’s one silver bullet that gets them all, but I know that I’m going to fight for as many of those things as I can to keep the costs down where it’s possible.”

She’s also eyeing reforms to a state program she says “isn’t being responsive.” The state launched the Elevate Florida program after Hurricane Helene in 2024. Using federal grant money, the program covers 75% of the cost to elevate homes in flood prone areas.

But homeowners have reported a lack of communication and delays in receiving any funding. While delays have been blamed on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local officials have been pushing back to expedite action for constituents, including letters from lawmakers based in Pinellas County this month.

“I’m just sad watching my neighbors suffer,” Rutland said, describing conversations with residents who have applied for funding only to hear nothing back for months on end. “It’s time they have someone in Tallahassee that is fighting for them.”

Rutland also addressed a looming issue in Florida, where homeowners pay among the highest property insurance rates in the nation.

“We’ve got to keep the competition open,” she said of the approach she would take in Tallahassee to continue reducing premiums. “The more companies we have operating and offering property insurance the less it’s going to cost. But it’s not just supply, we want options that are good ones.”

Rutland said she would continue supporting policies that promote competition while also cracking down on insurance fraud that some say is causing higher premiums.

On housing, Rutland said the state needs more inventory and out-of-the-box solutions, such as mother-in-law suites, formally called accessory dwelling units, or tiny homes. She also said the state should work with local governments to reduce permitting delays, which she said would support the addition of “thousands of new homes.”

State of the race

While Rutland may not be overtly partisan, make no mistake, she’s a Republican. She supports Republicans, and they support her. She has endorsements from a large slate of Pinellas County GOP officials, including Sens. Nick DiCeglie and Ed Hooper; Reps. Adam Anderson, Kim Berfield, Linda Chaney, Berny Jacques and Adam Ross; and Pinellas County Commissioners Dave Eggers, Vince Nowicki, Kathleen Peters, Chris Scherer and Brian Scott.

The combination of Rutland’s ability to buck partisanship, while also benefiting from it, likely makes her an ideal candidate for the GOP this cycle.

As of the end of May, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in HD 60 by just 584 voters, making a true swing district. Considering Republican voters historically turn out in higher percentages than Democrats, some would argue Republicans actually have an advantage.

But this could be a tough year for the GOP. The party in power in the White House often suffers up and down ballot during Midterm years, and that’s especially true when the President’s popularity is struggling. Trump’s approval rating as of early July was underwater 21 percentage points, at just 37% approval to 59% disapproval, according to The Economist.

That makes Rutland’s softer approach to partisanship in this race a likely boon for her chances. Even with potential challenges during a Midterm year, trends are on her side. As early as the last election cycle, in 2024, Democrats had a more than 2-percentage-point voter registration advantage, and that advantage had already been shrinking before 2024.

In 2022, the year Cross was first elected, Democrats controlled more than 37% of the district’s electorate, compared to just 31% for Republicans. And in 2020, under what was then House District 68 represented by former Democratic Rep. Ben Diamond, the spread was similar, at 38% to 32%.

Still, the race is likely to be close. Recent election cycles have maintained similar support for Democrats even as voter registration numbers have moved further toward the red.

Diamond won his most recent race, in 2020, with nearly 54% of the vote, a more than 7-percentage-point victory. The next cycle, under the current HD 60 lines, Cross won with more than 54% of the vote. Last cycle, Cross saw a slight dip in support, but still won with close to 54% of the vote.

But Rutland reminds voters that a Republican is more likely to bring home results.

“Republicans can just get more done in the environment there,” she said in a nod to the GOP supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature.

While Cross has had challenges getting legislation across the finish line as a member of the minority party, she has had some success working with local Republicans to bring home wins.

She has often worked with DiCeglie to secure funding for her St. Petersburg district, especially for environmental conservation, resilience, sustainability, and storm recovery after the severe hurricanes in 2024 that caused major flooding and wind damage.

This year, Cross worked with other local lawmakers to try to get funding for the University of South Florida after a fire destroyed a downtown St. Pete building. In the end, the funding was not included in the budget.

In 2025, Cross helped secure over $3 million for local projects. She also worked with DiCeglie to pass a law making it a traffic violation for drivers who speed through flooded streets and make wakes that worsen neighborhood flooding. This issue became clear after Hurricane Helene.

But to Rutland’s point, the list of Cross’ legislative wins is far shorter than that of any of her Republican colleagues. In the 2026 Legislative Session, none of the bills for which Cross was the first-named sponsor cleared. There were six bills passed and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on which Cross served as a co-sponsor. All of the cleared bills had bipartisan support.

Rutland is a graduate of Flagler College, where she earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration. She is also a graduate of the Women’s Executive in Business Leadership program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she attended as one of just 30 women selected nationwide. Rutland also is a Certified Commercial Investment Member of the CCIM Institute and the National Association of Realtors.