{"id":345968,"date":"2026-07-20T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345968\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:22:09","slug":"rick-kriseman-endorses-fentrice-driskell-in-sd-16-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345968\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Kriseman endorses Fentrice Driskell in SD 16 race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman<\/a> is endorsing House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell<\/a> in the Senate District 16 race, placing the city\u2019s former and current Mayors on opposing sides of the closely watched Primary.<\/p>\n

Kriseman said Driskell is the candidate best positioned to advance Tampa Bay\u2019s interests in Tallahassee, oppose legislation he views as harmful and work across party lines. The endorsement runs counter to that of current St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, who backed Rep. Michele Rayner<\/a> for the seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the current legislative climate that exists in Florida, when deciding who to support and who to vote for, it is important that we consider what candidate is best positioned to move St. Petersburg, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and the state of Florida forward, to support good policies and opposed problematic legislation, what candidate can work across the aisle to bring resources back to our community,\u201d Kriseman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving known Fentrice Driskell for many years, I am convinced that she would be the most impactful in the position as our Senator. It is for that reason that I am proud to endorse and support Fentrice Driskell for Senator.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Driskell\u2019s campaign now has the support of Democratic Senators who previously held the seat, including former Sens. Arthenia Joyner, Les Miller and James Hargrett.<\/p>\n

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

Driskell has also lined up support from the Florida AFL-CIO, West Central Florida Labor Council, Florida Realtors, Florida Education Association, Sierra Club Florida, Teamsters Local 79, IBEW Locals 824 and 915, the Hillsborough and Pinellas classroom teachers associations, the Tampa and Suncoast police benevolent associations, and firefighter unions representing Tampa, St. Petersburg, Hillsborough County and Pinellas County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Driskell has maintained a substantial financial advantage<\/a> in the race with more than $315,000 available across her campaign account and two affiliated political committees, compared with roughly $58,000 for Rayner.<\/p>\n

Still, polling suggests<\/a> the race could remain competitive. A mid-May survey showed Rayner leading Driskell 26%-22%, with 41% of voters undecided.<\/p>\n

Driskell and Rayner are seeking to succeed term-limited St. Petersburg Democratic Sen. Darryl Rouson. Because no Republican qualified, the Aug. 18 open Primary will decide the race outright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman is endorsing House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell in the Senate District 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[11591,60458,820,80091,12665,276,141707,2346,141708,824,596,3302,141709,141710,199,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-345968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-2026-election","tag-arthenia-joyner","tag-darryl-rouson","tag-endorsements","tag-fentrice-driskell","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-james-hargrett","tag-ken-welch","tag-les-miller","tag-michele-rayner","tag-pinellas-county","tag-rick-kriseman","tag-sd-16","tag-senate-district-16","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345968","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=345968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}