{"id":375250,"date":"2026-08-19T03:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T03:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375250\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T03:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T03:38:13","slug":"kyandra-darling-bests-wengay-newton-in-hd-62-delivering-his-fifth-defeat-since-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375250\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyandra Darling bests Wengay Newton in HD 62, delivering his fifth defeat since 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyandra Darling has defeated Wengay Newton in the open Democratic Primary for House District 62, delivering to Newton, a former state Representative, his fifth defeat since 2020 when he left the Legislature.<\/p>\n

Darling will replace state Rep. Michele Rayner, who opted not to seek re-election to instead run for Florida Senate.<\/p>\n

With early tallies, Darling led Newton with 61% of the vote, a gap too wide to bridge with outstanding votes left to count.<\/p>\n

Darling dominated Newton in both institutional support and fundraising.<\/p>\n

Darling 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, raised less than $35,000<\/a> and has spent nearly $30,000 on the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/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

Rayner 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

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

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

The HD 62 Democratic Primary was open to all voters regardless of party affiliation, because no other candidates entered the race and both Darling and Newton are Democrats.<\/p>\n

Newton\u2019s loss builds on his losing streak in recent years. Newton opted not to seek re-election to the House in 2020, and instead ran unsuccessfully for the Pinellas County Commission. The next year, he ran for St. Pete Mayor, but finished fourth in the Primary. In 2022, he launched a failed bid to reclaim his old House seat. Two years ago, he lost a bid for St. Pete City Council. He had previously served two terms on the City Council before he was elected to the House in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyandra Darling has defeated Wengay Newton in the open Democratic Primary for House District 62, delivering to Newton,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[821,822,823,824,202,204,203,199,201,200,826],"class_list":["post-375250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-hd-62","tag-house-district-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\/375250","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=375250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}