{"id":400847,"date":"2026-09-15T21:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400847\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:56:09","slug":"bay-news-9-to-host-st-pete-mayoral-debate-following-charlie-crist-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400847\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay News 9 to host St. Pete mayoral debate following Charlie Crist challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spectrum Bay News 9 has set a date and established rules for a debate between St. Petersburg mayoral candidates Charlie Crist and Ken Welch\u00a0to air Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward to it. I hope you get to tune in. It\u2019s an exciting time. Big decision we all have to make. I\u2019ve already made mine. I\u2019m going to vote for Charlie,\u201d Crist said in a video response<\/a> to the debate announcement.<\/p>\n

Crist challenged Welch to a televised debate<\/a> at the end of August, citing limited attendance at in-person forums.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vote is our most sacred right as American citizens, and casting it should be a decision weighed carefully. That means every voter should have the opportunity to hear directly from myself and Mayor Welch as we seek your vote to lead our city over the next four years,\u201d\u00a0Crist said at the time, adding that \u201cthis information is too important to share one room at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crist was the first-place finisher<\/a> in the Primary for Mayor last month, finishing with more than 35% of the vote to Welch\u2019s less than 21%. In addition to his nearly 15-percentage-point lead over Welch in the Primary, Crist has established himself as a front-runner in the race, with a significant cash-on-hand advantage over the incumbent and polling that suggests an easy win in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

A St. Pete Polls survey<\/a>\u00a0taken Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 among 509 likely St. Pete voters shows Crist with 52% support in the race, while Welch trails at 27%.<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s positioning above 50% suggests that even with winning all undecided voters, Welch may not have a clear path to victory in November. And data from the poll show Crist has improved his position among several demographics, including erasing Welch\u2019s advantage among Black voters and Democrats while gaining ground among both Republicans and independent voters.<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s polling has continuously improved since March, while Welch\u2019s has generally declined. Welch polled at 31% support in a head-to-head against Crist in March, with his strongest showing in late June at 32% support. Welch\u2019s current 27% is his lowest yet. Crist, meanwhile, polled at 36% support in\u00a0March<\/a>, jumping to 40% in\u00a0June<\/a>, 44% in\u00a0mid-July<\/a>, 45% in\u00a0late July<\/a>\u00a0and now 52%.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Ed. note:\u00a0Michelle Todd Schorsch\u00a0is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to\u00a0Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spectrum Bay News 9 has set a date and established rules for a debate between St. Petersburg mayoral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[117588,3347,30462,2346,78948,202,204,3303,18455,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-400847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-bay-news-9","tag-charlie-crist","tag-debate","tag-ken-welch","tag-spectrum","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-mayors-race","tag-st-pete-mayoral-election","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\/400847","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=400847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}