![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Welch-Facebook-290x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe battle for St. Peterburg mayor will be a runoff between incumbent Ken Welch and former governor and congressman Charlie Crist, who scored a significant victory in Tuesday\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n
Crist claimed 35% of the vote to Welch\u2019s 20.5% to head the nonpartisan race of six candidates. Since neither got more than 50%, both will advance to the general election on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Former city Fire Chief Jim Large (18%) and city council member Brandi Gabbard (17%) were close behind Welch. Maria Lynne Scruggs, a former president of the city\u2019s NAACP branch, earned 5% and former Shore Acres Civic Association president Kevin Batdorf had 3%.<\/p>\n
Crist, 70, thanked volunteers and supporters in a cramped Cassis restaurant on downtown\u2019s Beach Drive during a short victory speech after the polls closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m full of gratitude and no attitude,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, we got a 15-point lead. That\u2019s incredible. Over an incumbent. You know, it\u2019s just, it\u2019s very humbling, and we have a long way to go, about 70 days to Nov. 3.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crist then returned to campaign messaging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make St. Pete affordable. We\u2019ve got to do the things that we need to do to change and get it better, get us back on track. We\u2019re gonna make that happen, with your help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During a gathering at the St. Petersburg Fire Union Hall, Welch vowed to keep his job for another four years, noting that \u201cthe playoffs are over and we\u2019re going to the championship game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s down to one opponent and a clear choice on the path we take as a city. I\u2019m looking forward to finally a substantive debate on what matters our vision, our plans and our priorities, not political sound bites and vague promises on affordability,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n
Crist raised more than $2 million to less than $500,000 for Welch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mayor Ken Welch opened his Primary Election Day with an appearance at the launch of Greencycle, a new food waste composting initiative. Photo: Facebook.<\/p>\n
Welch, who said, \u201cYou can\u2019t buy credibility,\u201d attacked Crist for accepting money from what he called \u201cout-of-state special interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie Crist has spent decades running for office. I\u2019ve spent the last five years doing the job of mayor of my hometown,\u201d Welch said. \u201cThere is a choice in this runoff whether we keep St. Petersburg moving forward with experienced steady leadership that is accountable to our residents or turn our city over to out-of-town special interest money.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Crist said he wished Welch wasn\u2019t \u201cso negative.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ought to feel good about where he was tonight and ought to be positive,\u201d Crist said. \u201cWe need more positivity in our city and in our country, and I\u2019m not going to be negative on him tonight because our country and our city deserve better. And I\u2019m better than that and he should be too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crist\u2019s criticism of Welch has included the mayor\u2019s handling of the hurricane recovery, the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 stadium situation, Historic Gas Plant District renovation and the creation of affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Welch, 62, has defended his record and has come down on what he calls a lack of specifics from Crist on how to address the city\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie Crist has not laid out any plans, no vision, whether it\u2019s the Gas Plant, whether it\u2019s resilience, affordability,\u201d Welch said. \u201cThe people of St. Pete need to know what his plan is, and I hope he comes to some debates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crist, who has participated in three debates with all six candidates, has proposed a property tax cut and working out a way to keep the Rays at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n
The winner will be sworn in Jan. 7.<\/p>\n
Steve Newborn in a reporter with WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The battle for St. Peterburg mayor will be a runoff between incumbent Ken Welch and former governor and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-376061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376061","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=376061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}