{"id":2621,"date":"2025-10-14T15:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2621\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:21:23","slug":"ben-diamond-will-not-run-for-st-pete-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2621\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Diamond will not run for St. Pete Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Diamond will not run for St. Petersburg Mayor, he announced Thursday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The news comes after Diamond had, over the Summer, message-tested a possible bid<\/a> against incumbent Mayor Ken Welch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs many of you know, I have spent the summer considering running for Mayor of St. Petersburg in 2026. I am grateful for the insights and encouragement I received from so many community leaders, friends and residents who love our City like I do. But after some reflection and private time with our family over the last couple of weeks, I have concluded now is not the right time for me to seek a return to public office,\u201d the former state Representative told Florida Politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic service is a passion, and I care deeply about St. Petersburg\u2019s future. But my family takes priority now. Our son and daughters are at those wonderful ages where they still like hanging out with Dad. As a candidate, you must be all in. Right now, I want to be all in for my family and cannot commit the time to a vigorous campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond said that while he won\u2019t run for Mayor, he is hopeful to identify other opportunities to serve the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, I will continue to be an engaged citizen.\u00a0 Even in these highly polarized times, I hope we can all keep working together to make St. Petersburg an even better place to build a business, engage in our community, and \u2014 most importantly \u2014 raise a family,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In June, Diamond had sent a survey to voters floating possible messaging strategies against an incumbent who serves as the city\u2019s first African American Mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Diamond had run, it would have pit two Democrats against one another. Adding to that obvious sting \u2014 the party tries to avoid primarying one of its own \u2014 Diamond would have run as a White candidate against the city\u2019s first Black Mayor. And the survey appeared to test whether that would have been a disqualifying issue.<\/p>\n

The survey offered positives about both men. It described Diamond as \u201ca White man \u2026 born and raised in Pinellas County, where he\u2019s now raising his family.\u201d It described his service as a state Representative and that he \u201cworked across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions for working families,\u201d adding that he \u201cwill work to combat local flooding, invest in infrastructure, and fight crime to make St. Petersburg safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement seemed to position Diamond as a moderate candidate, a message to test whether the liberal city is looking for a centrist leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another question described Welch as a \u201cBlack man\u201d and \u201cthird-generation St. Petersburg resident\u201d who \u201chas worked to make the city a better place for everyone to live by delivering affordable housing for residents who make St. Pete work, backing public safety by investing in youth programs and resources for our police and fire departments, and by leading the city in recovery from last year\u2019s storms.\u201d<\/p>\n

But another question on the survey tested possible attacks on Welch, including reports that he stayed at home when Hurricane Ian was threatening in 2022, while other elected officials slept at the emergency operations center, and debris piles that sat for weeks, sometimes months, after Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year, dubbed \u201cWelch piles,\u201d as the survey notes.<\/p>\n

Survey results weren\u2019t announced publicly, meaning it\u2019s not clear whether any insights gleaned from it were a basis for Diamond\u2019s decision not to run\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, one candidate is running against Welch \u2014 Maria Scruggs. Scruggs has sought office before, as a nonpartisan candidate, but has never held elected office.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Diamond will not run for St. Petersburg Mayor, he announced Thursday evening.\u00a0 The news comes after Diamond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3174,2346,3175,202,204,3176,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-2621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-ben-diamond","9":"tag-ken-welch","10":"tag-maria-scruggs","11":"tag-st-pete","12":"tag-st-pete-headlines","13":"tag-st-pete-mayor","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621","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=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}