{"id":351586,"date":"2026-07-24T21:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351586\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:31:10","slug":"suncoast-sierra-club-backs-brandi-gabbard-for-st-pete-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351586\/","title":{"rendered":"Suncoast Sierra Club backs Brandi Gabbard for St. Pete Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Suncoast Sierra Club<\/a> is endorsing St. Petersburg City Council Member Brandi Gabbard<\/a> in the city\u2019s mayoral race, citing her record on resilience, sustainability and coastal protection.<\/p>\n

The endorsement comes as St. Petersburg confronts aging water infrastructure, stronger storms, sea-level rise and continued development pressure \u2014 issues the organization said should be central to the next Mayor\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandi Gabbard has become one of Suncoast Sierra Club\u2019s strongest allies on the St. Petersburg City Council because she understands that resiliency is not a side issue; it is the foundation for how our city must govern,\u201d Political Committee of the Suncoast Sierra Club Co-Chair Pat Fling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a moment when St. Petersburg is facing aging water infrastructure, stronger storms, sea-level rise, and intense growth pressure, Brandi brings the experience, independence, and working knowledge needed to lead from the Mayor\u2019s Office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During her time on the City Council, Gabbard has supported the St. Pete Youth Farm, advocated for using BP settlement funds to expand the city\u2019s tree canopy and worked to advance a municipal seagrass mitigation bank.<\/p>\n

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

Gabbard previously chaired the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, where she worked on the Regional Resilience Action Plan. She currently chairs the council\u2019s Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition and the City Council\u2019s Health, Energy, Sustainability and Resiliency Committee.<\/p>\n

She said that, as Mayor, she would fully implement the city\u2019s Integrated Sustainability Action Plan, prioritize stormwater projects intended to keep pollutants out of Tampa Bay, expand transportation options and support blue-green infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Gabbard said she is honored to receive support from the Suncoast Sierra Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs your Mayor, I will make resiliency and sustainability an integral part of every decision we make, from protecting our waterways and neighborhoods to improving affordability, accountability, and quality of life,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n

Gabbard is one of six candidates seeking to lead St. Petersburg. The field also includes incumbent Mayor Ken Welch<\/a>, former Gov. Charlie Crist<\/a>, former St. Petersburg Fire Chief Jim Large<\/a>, community advocate Maria Scruggs<\/a> and former Shore Acres Neighborhood Civic Association President Kevin Batdorf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The Primary is Aug. 18. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a Nov. 3 runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Suncoast Sierra Club is endorsing St. Petersburg City Council Member Brandi Gabbard in the city\u2019s mayoral race,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,3347,20708,48946,71439,2346,72295,3175,202,204,203,199,1640,98044,201,15767,200,143788,893,96960,143789],"class_list":["post-351586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-charlie-crist","tag-climate-resilience","tag-environmental-policy","tag-jim-large","tag-ken-welch","tag-kevin-batdorf","tag-maria-scruggs","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-city-council","tag-st-petersburg-elections","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-mayor","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-suncoast-sierra-club","tag-sustainability","tag-tampa-bay-regional-planning-council","tag-tampa-bay-regional-resiliency-coalition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351586","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=351586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351586\/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=351586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}