Kelly Kirschner at WMNF in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 28, 2026. // Photo by Ray Roa
Florida is just 46 days away from the general election, and in the southern Tampa Bay area, Democrat Kelly Kirschner thinks he can succeed Vern Buchanan in a newly redrawn CD16.
Kirschner—a third-generation Floridian, former Mayor of Sarasota, and once the youngest city commissioner in the history of the municipality—faces Republican Sydney Gruters and thinks he has a pathway
“It’s gonna be a healthy margin of victory on November third,” he told The Skinny on Friday afternoon.
The 51-year-old also discussed his stance against money in politics, beating a Grueters-run campaign in the past, and more.
In the second half of the program, we talked books with Carrie Boucher, the founder of the NOMADstudio nonprofit working with Tombolo Books to bring more books to incarcerated juveniles, and Amaris Castillo, a journalist who is the author of a new St. Pete-based book, “Bodega Stories.”
Listen to the show via Apple Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.