{"id":375993,"date":"2026-08-19T22:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375993\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T22:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:28:28","slug":"tampa-mayoral-candidate-gary-hartfield-hosts-campaign-launch-event-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375993\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa mayoral candidate Gary Hartfield hosts campaign launch event on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" data-attachment-id=\"366719\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/gary-hartfield-campaign\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gary-Hartfield-campaign-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1707&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1707\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;6.3&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;OCTAVIO JONES&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 5D Mark IV&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1689349456&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;100&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.005&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Gary Hartfield campaign\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Gary Hartfield at Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gary-Hartfield-campaign-scaled.jpeg?fit=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gary-Hartfield-campaign.jpeg\" alt=\"A photograph showing political candidate Gary Hartfield sitting outdoors on a concrete bench at Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida. Captured in a medium three-quarter shot, Hartfield sits with his hands clasped together in his lap, looking directly forward toward the camera. He wears a grey plaid suit with a white dress shirt and dark blue tie. Behind him, the open-air plaza features green lawn strips, a white concrete wall, metal railings, and the distant rooftops and spires of downtown Tampa under a partly cloudy sky.\" class=\"wp-image-366719\"  \/>Gary Hartfield at Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida. Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/garyhartfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/B4A9892.jpeg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Campaign photo<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mayoral candidate Bill Carlson is in the spotlight lately thanks to his taking the reins on the Rays stadium fiasco, but the Tampa City Councilman isn\u2019t the only person running to lead the City of Tampa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gary Hartfield, author and founder of Serenity Village Insurance &amp; Consulting, filed his paperwork <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/entrepreneur-gary-hartfield-enters-race-to-be-tampas-next-mayor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last March telling Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/a> that the decision is part of \u201ca deliberate and intentional plan to find ways to give back to my community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 55-year-old officially kicks off his campaign this week, hoping to meet supporters old and new and tell them about his plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/garyfortampamayor.com\/kickoff\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/garyfortampamayor.com\/kickoff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">There\u2019s no cover, but an RSVP is required, for Gary Hartfield\u2019s campaign kickoff happening in Tampa on Thursday, Aug. 20.<\/a><\/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\/august-20-26-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 20 \u2013 26, 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":"Gary Hartfield at Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida. Credit: Campaign photo Mayoral candidate Bill Carlson is in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[94519,135,15863,137,56879,136],"class_list":["post-375993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-gary-hartfield","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-elections","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-mayoral-race","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375993","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=375993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}