{"id":375630,"date":"2026-08-19T14:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375630\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:12:08","slug":"st-pete-mayor-ken-welch-will-defend-his-seat-in-november-runoff-against-charlie-crist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375630\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch will defend his seat in November runoff against Charlie Crist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"408\" data-attachment-id=\"366690\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/welch-crist-runoff\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Welch-Crist-runoff-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1340&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1340\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Welch Crist runoff\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch (L) and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will compete in a runoff that wraps on Nov. 3, 2026.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Welch-Crist-runoff-scaled.png?fit=780%2C408&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Welch-Crist-runoff.png\" alt=\"A side-by-side composite photograph showing St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch on the left and former Florida Governor Charlie Crist on the right. On the left, Mayor Welch is captured in a medium close-up gesture while speaking, wearing a white collared shirt featuring a &quot;WE ARE ST. PETE&quot; chest logo and round black-framed eyeglasses. On the right, Crist is shown in a medium close-up portrait smiling directly at the camera with his hand on his hip, wearing a grey denim button-down shirt in front of the historic St. Petersburg High School building.\" class=\"wp-image-366690\"  \/>St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch (L) and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will compete in a runoff that wraps on Nov. 3, 2026. Credit: MayorKenWelch \/ charliecristfl \/ Facebook<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite being out fundraised four to one, incumbent St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is headed to a runoff against Former Florida governor Charlie Crist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The runoff happens as part of this fall\u2019s general election, which wraps on Election Day, Nov. 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crist\u2014who\u2019s come under fire for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/condemn-the-lie-ken-welch-slams-charlie-crist-after-florida-politics-publisher-spreads-affair-rumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">connections to controversial figures<\/a> and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/florida-politics\/2026\/04\/10\/charlie-crist-st-petersburg-mayor-ken-welch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">time spent in Minnesota in the wake of back-to-back hurricanes<\/a>\u2014earned 35% of the vote as the Florida primary wrapped last night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Welch, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/facing-reelection-mayor-ken-welch-believes-his-administration-did-well-to-help-st-pete-recover-after-hurricanes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">facing scrutiny over his own response to the 2024 storms<\/a>, was elected as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/ken-welch-wins-st-petersburg-mayoral-race-becoming-the-citys-first-black-mayor-12479016\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg\u2019s first Black mayor<\/a> in 2021 and earned 20.5% of the vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former St. Pete Fire Chief <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/in-pitch-to-become-mayor-former-fire-chief-jim-large-says-st-petes-infrastructure-has-to-catch-up-with-the-growth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Large<\/a> finished third (18%) with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=brandi+gabbard+cltampa.com&amp;oq=brandi+gabbard+cltampa.com&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORigAdIBCDQzMTlqMGo0qAIBsAIB8QWyRMbXjPmGIA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;source=chrome.ob&amp;ie=UTF-8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">City Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard<\/a> (17%), former St. Pete NAACP president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/maria-scruggs-first-to-file-in-st-petes-mayoral-race-is-also-the-only-one-to-qualify-by-petition\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maria Scruggs<\/a> (5%) and former Shore Acres Civic Association president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/mayoral-candidate-kevin-batdorf-says-ken-welch-didnt-give-st-pete-true-leadership-during-hurricane-recovery\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Batdorf <\/a>(3%) rounding things out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crist raised more than $2 million for the primary while Welch raked in less than $500,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/tampa-newslettersignup-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAiECLjru3gB6BLYKOKFLfkVZsqFAgKIhAi467t4AegS2CjihS35FWb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbreak.com\/@c\/1599764?s=01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CreativeLoafingTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cltampabay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cltampabay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/cltampabay.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/collections\/aug-13-19-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 13 \u2013 19, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead his 2016 intro letter\u00a0and disclosures from 2022 and 2021.\u00a0Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/author\/rroa\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ray Roa\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch (L) and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will compete in a runoff that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3347,26619,202,204,203,199,98044,201,200],"class_list":["post-375630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-charlie-crist","tag-mayor-ken-welch","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-elections","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375630","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=375630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}