{"id":301071,"date":"2026-06-09T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301071\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T08:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T08:44:10","slug":"charlie-crist-grows-fundraising-haul-to-1-6m-rolls-out-major-vote-by-mail-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301071\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Crist grows fundraising haul to $1.6M, rolls out major vote-by-mail effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Charlie Crist raised more than $330,000 from the beginning of April through the end of May, bringing his total haul to more than $1.6 million.<\/p>\n

The fundraising activity includes nearly $283,000 raised to Crist\u2019s affiliated political committee, St. Pete Shines, and more than $54,000 raised to his official campaign. More than 150 donors have contributed to Crist\u2019s campaign since he officially entered the race in late April, according to officials with the political committee and campaign, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t take a single contribution for granted, especially in this economy,\u201d Crist said of his latest fundraising haul. \u201cThat\u2019s why I am more grateful than ever for the generous support of my friends and neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle Todd Schorsch, who is overseeing Crist\u2019s affiliated political committee, said the campaign\u2019s \u201cmomentum is undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a significant cash on hand advantage; continued strong fundraising; and a bipartisan coalition of small-dollar donors, political committees and businesses, it is clear St. Pete residents and stakeholders are hungry for new leadership. Charlie Crist has the experience the city deserves, and voters are taking notice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

With the mayoral Primary drawing closer \u2014 early voting begins Aug. 8 and the deadline to request a mail ballot is Aug. 6 \u2014 St. Pete Shines and the Crist campaign are making a six-figure investment into restoring vote-by-mail requests to levels before state law required more frequent requests.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Times reported last month<\/a> that vote-by-mail requests are down across the Tampa Bay region, with some areas seeing requests plummet by as much as half after a 2021 law signed by Gov.\u00a0Ron\u00a0DeSantis\u00a0required voters to request mail ballots every two years, after each General Election.<\/p>\n

A copy of a flier obtained by Florida Politics includes a QR code recipients can scan to be taken directly to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections vote-by-mail request page and a phone number to call to request a mail ballot for those who prefer not to make the request online.<\/p>\n

The flier notes that mail ballot requests expire after every General Election, meaning voters must request them each election. It also assures voters that \u201cvoting by mail is secure and convenient,\u201d noting that the ballot \u201ccan be tracked and securely returned.\u201d The flier also includes the vote-by-mail request deadline, the early voting dates (Aug. 8-15) and Election Day (Aug. 18.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my political career, I\u2019ve made it my top priority to ensure everyone has the opportunity to vote, which is our most sacred right,\u201d Crist said, pointing to one of his most defining acts during his tenure as the state\u2019s chief executive, restoring voting rights to some\u00a0155,000 Floridians with prior felony convictions<\/a>. It was the largest voting rights restoration by a Governor in Florida history.<\/p>\n

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

Crist pushed for automatic clemency for ex-felons who had completed their sentences, a fix to a Civil War era state law banning felons from voting for life.<\/p>\n

Campaign finance reports for St. Pete Shines will be available by June 10, the reporting deadline<\/a> for all fundraising and expenditures from April 1 through May 31. His campaign finance report is due June 19<\/a>, covering fundraising and expenditures from April 1 through June 12.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Mayor Ken Welch has been significantly trailing Crist<\/a> in fundraising activity. Neither Welch\u2019s campaign nor its affiliated political committee, St. Pete Progress, have filed campaign reports covering activity beyond March, but Welch raised just under $220,000 in the first quarter of 2026 between the two funding sources. He had less than $193,000 on hand at the time. During the same period, Crist more than doubled Welch\u2019s fundraising and had $1.1 million left on hand.<\/p>\n

The campaign between the two men \u2014 as well as a field of four other candidates \u2014 will take further shape once all campaign finance activity is reported for the most recent period.<\/p>\n

Welch will likely need to post big numbers or risk further critique about a campaign in financial trouble.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Ed. Note:\u00a0Michelle Todd Schorsch\u00a0is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee expected to back Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to\u00a0Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Charlie Crist raised more than $330,000 from the beginning of April through the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3347,2346,93751,37377,202,204,18455,203,199,201,200,33933],"class_list":["post-301071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-charlie-crist","tag-ken-welch","tag-mail-ballot","tag-michelle-todd-schorsch","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-mayoral-election","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-vote-by-mail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301071","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=301071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}