Welch\u2019s campaign cited Castor\u2019s close work with the St. Petersburg mayor on regional priorities affecting transportation, housing, and economic development<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is officially endorsing St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch in his bid for reelection in the 2026 race.<\/p>\n
In her endorsement, Castor highlights strong regional support for Welch\u2019s leadership and continued vision for St. Pete after working closely together on key issues across the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n
Mayor Castor provided this statement in her endorsement:<\/p>\n
\u201cMayor Ken Welch has been a thoughtful, collaborative leader for St. Petersburg and a strong partner for our entire region. He leads with integrity, puts people first, and understands how to bring communities together to get things done. St. Petersburg is stronger because of his leadership, and I\u2019m proud to support his re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welch\u2019s campaign says the mayor has worked closely with Castor\u2019s on issues such as transportation, housing and economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to Mayor Castor for her partnership and support,\u201d Welch said in a statement. \u201cThe Tampa Bay region succeeds when we work together, and I\u2019m proud of the progress we\u2019ve made by building strong relationships across our cities. As we look ahead, I\u2019m focused on continuing to create opportunity, expand affordable housing, and ensure St. Petersburg remains a city where everyone can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since taking office in 2022, Welch has emphasized equitable economic development, infrastructure investment and housing affordability.<\/p>\n
Castor\u2019s endorsement adds to a growing list of labor, elected officials, and community leaders backing Welch\u2019s re-election bid.<\/p>\n
The Tampa mayor’s endorsement also comes two days after former Florida governor Charlie Crist<\/a> announced his bid for St. Pete mayor.<\/p>\n Additionally<\/a>,\u00a0Brandi Gabbard<\/a>, a current council member of St. Pete’s City Council, is also running for the mayoral position.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maria Scruggs, Jim Large, Paul Congemi and Kevin Batdorf also filed their documents to run for mayor in St. Pete.<\/p>\n Residents of St. Pete will be able to vote in the Primary Election of Aug. 18 for one of the candidates running for mayor. If no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welch\u2019s campaign cited Castor\u2019s close work with the St. Petersburg mayor on regional priorities affecting transportation, housing, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-250970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}