{"id":288910,"date":"2026-05-29T14:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/288910\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T14:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:06:09","slug":"brandi-gabbard-qualifies-for-st-petersburg-mayoral-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/288910\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandi Gabbard qualifies for St. Petersburg mayoral race"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg City Council Member Brandi Gabbard<\/a> is officially on the ballot in her bid to unseat Mayor Ken Welch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gabbard announced Friday that she qualified for the ballot after filing paperwork at City Hall on Wednesday, just hours after Welch qualified for his own re-election campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moment isn\u2019t about me; it\u2019s about us. It\u2019s about building a future where our neighborhoods thrive, our workforce is empowered, and our city stands strong and resilient against whatever comes our way,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n

Gabbard has served on the City Council for nearly a decade, giving her a City Hall record to run on as she asks voters to elevate her to the city\u2019s top elected office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last 9 years, we\u2019ve done incredible work together, and this is the next step toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive St. Pete,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n

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

The race has already drawn a wide field, with Welch facing challenges from Gabbard, former Shore Acres Neighborhood Civic Association President Kevin Batdorf<\/a>, Paul Congemi, former Gov. Charlie Crist<\/a>, former St. Petersburg Fire Chief Jim Large<\/a>, and Maria Scruggs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s entry added a major name to the race and complicated Welch\u2019s re-election path, while Gabbard is working to keep pace behind a record as a sitting local elected official with years of experience in city government.<\/p>\n

Gabbard has focused her campaign on affordability, accountability, resilience and community-driven leadership, with proposals aimed at utility costs, housing, public safety, small-business support, transportation, food access and the future of the Historic Gas Plant District.<\/p>\n

Her platform includes a call to explore energy independence from Duke Energy<\/a>, arguing the city should study municipal or cooperative power models that could lower costs and keep utility revenue within St. Petersburg. She has also called for treating food access as necessary infrastructure, particularly in places with known issues such as South St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

Gabbard has also pitched zoning changes to reduce regulations and parking requirements that drive up costs, expanded access to \u201cmissing middle\u201d housing and accessory dwelling units, and an alternative approach to redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The St. Petersburg mayoral election is scheduled for Aug. 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet out and vote, and let\u2019s move our city forward together,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg City Council Member Brandi Gabbard is officially on the ballot in her bid to unseat Mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,3347,3401,13644,71439,2346,72295,3175,72296,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-288910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-charlie-crist","tag-duke-energy","tag-historic-gas-plant-district","tag-jim-large","tag-ken-welch","tag-kevin-batdorf","tag-maria-scruggs","tag-paul-congemi","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\/288910","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=288910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}