{"id":302420,"date":"2026-06-10T10:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302420\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:44:14","slug":"st-pete-mayoral-candidates-square-off-in-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302420\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete mayoral candidates square off in debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Multiple mayoral candidates shared their vision for St. Pete\u2019s future on Tuesday as they went head-to-head in a debate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The mayoral debate hosted by St. Petersburg\u2019s NAACP chapter began at 5:30 p.m. at the Obama Main Library and lasted several hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/us\/articles\/st-pete-beach-leaders-consider-150102133.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:St. Pete Beach leaders consider new beach restrictions;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;St. Pete Beach leaders consider new beach restrictions&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> St. Pete Beach leaders consider new beach restrictions <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Incumbent Mayor Ken Welch was among those participating as he\u2019s trying to convince voters to give him a second term in office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His opponents include former Gov. and Rep. Charlie Crist, Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard, former NAACP St. Pete President Maria Scruggs, and neighborhood leader Kevin Batdorf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jim Large, who is also running for mayor, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/st-pete-mayoral-candidates-prepare-232819571.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:he wouldn\u2019t be participating;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;he wouldn\u2019t be participating&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he wouldn\u2019t be participating<\/a> in the debate after previous social media posts were made by NAACP St. Pete members who had concerns over allegations that he made racist, homophobic and sexist remarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Voters in St. Pete will be heading to the polls in August to decide who will be the next mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A full stream of the debate will be available in the media player above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Multiple mayoral candidates shared their vision for St. Pete\u2019s future on Tuesday as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3347,106552,23856,13703,126890,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-302420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-charlie-crist","tag-mayoral-candidates","tag-mayoral-debate","tag-naacp","tag-obama-main-library","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\/302420","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=302420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}