{"id":371590,"date":"2026-08-14T19:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371590\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T19:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:24:08","slug":"fifth-times-the-charm-wengay-newton-looks-to-break-losing-streak-against-kyandra-darling-in-hd-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371590\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth time\u2019s the charm? Wengay Newton looks to break losing streak against Kyandra Darling in HD 62"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long time since Wengay Newton has held elected office. Most recently, the Democrat served in what was then House District 70 for four years. He left office in 2020.<\/p>\n

Since then, Newton has run and lost for office four times, including a failed bid in 2022 to reclaim his old House seat \u2014 now House District 62. He ran unsuccessfully two years ago for St. Pete City Council in the seat he previously held before being elected to the House.<\/p>\n

In 2021 he ran for St. Pete Mayor, finishing fourth in the Primary with just 7.5% of the vote. In 2020, he ran for Pinellas County Commission, losing in the Democratic Primary to now-incumbent Rene Flowers.<\/p>\n

Now, Newton is hoping to break his losing streak in his third bid for the Legislature, this time facing fellow Democrat Kyandra Darling in a race that has pitted Newton as the underdog despite his past elected experience on St. Pete City Council and in a previous iteration of the district he now seeks.<\/p>\n

Darling is dominating Newton in institutional support and fundraising.<\/p>\n

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

Darling has raised<\/a> more than $125,000 for the race, as of July 31, and had spent nearly $135,000 as of the same point. Newton, meanwhile, has raised less than $35,000<\/a> and has spent nearly $30,000 on the race.<\/p>\n

Darling also has a list of endorsers<\/a> that dwarfs Newton\u2019s, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor<\/a> is also supporting Darling, along with Hillsborough County Commissioner Harry Cohen; Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez; Tampa City Council Member Alan Clendenin; St. Pete City Council Members Gina Driscoll, Richie Floyd and Lisset Hanewicz; former St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman; former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink; former state Rep. Frank Peterman; former Hillsborough County Clerk of Court Cindy Stuart; former St. Pete Beach Mayor Alan Johnson; former St. Pete City Council Members John Muhammad, Charlie Gerdes and Steve Kornell; former Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard; and a host of local faith leaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Michele Rayner, who is leaving office to run for state Senate, has endorsed<\/a> Darling as her preferred successor. <\/p>\n

Newton, meanwhile, lists support<\/a> from the Tampa, St. Petersburg and Hillsborough County Associations of Fire Fighters, and his website includes a logo from the Fraternal Order of Police, but doesn\u2019t indicate definitively whether the group endorsed him.<\/p>\n

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

Darling is a former staffer for former U.S. Rep.\u00a0Charlie Crist and worked as a legislative aide to former St. Pete City Council Members\u00a0Steve Kornell\u00a0and Lisa Wheeler-Bowman. She has also worked in the nonprofit sector, collaborating with more than 40 nonprofit organizations serving health equity, education and economic opportunity issues in the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n

Darling and Newton are running in an open Primary Tuesday. Because no other candidates entered the race and both candidates are Democrats, all eligible voters can cast a ballot in the election, and there won\u2019t be a General Election.<\/p>\n

HD 62 leans heavily Democratic, with more than 49% of the electorate registered as Democrats, compared to just 19% being Republicans, according to\u00a0L2 voter data<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long time since Wengay Newton has held elected office. Most recently, the Democrat served in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150192,821,823,824,202,204,203,199,201,200,826],"class_list":["post-371590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-florida-house-district-62","tag-hd-62","tag-kyandra-darling","tag-michele-rayner","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-wengay-newton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371590","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=371590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}