{"id":403676,"date":"2026-09-18T16:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403676\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T16:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:06:10","slug":"kelly-kirschner-makes-a-case-for-sarasotas-florida-congressional-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403676\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly Kirschner makes a case for Sarasota\u2019s Florida congressional seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1183\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260918_112214-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-266725 size-266725 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKelly Kirschner at WMNF in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 28, 2026. \/\/ Photo by Ray Roa<\/p>\n<p>Florida is just 46 days away from the general election, and in the southern Tampa Bay area, Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/kellykirschner.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly Kirschner<\/a> thinks he can succeed Vern Buchanan in a newly redrawn CD16.<\/p>\n<p>Kirschner\u2014a third-generation Floridian, former Mayor of Sarasota, and once the\u00a0youngest city commissioner in the history of the municipality\u2014faces Republican Sydney Gruters and thinks he has a pathway<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a healthy margin of victory on November third,\u201d he told The Skinny on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>The 51-year-old also discussed his stance against money in politics, beating a Grueters-run campaign in the past, and more.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half of the program, we talked books with Carrie Boucher, the founder of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nomadstudio.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NOMADstudio<\/a> nonprofit working with Tombolo Books to <a href=\"https:\/\/tombolobooks.com\/gift-registry\/MCDKS1k7e1g\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bring more books to incarcerated juveniles<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/amariscastillo.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amaris Castillo<\/a>, a journalist who is the author of a new St. Pete-based book, \u201cBodega Stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the show via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-skinny\/id1668204078\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Apple Music<\/a>,\u00a0TuneIn, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2bCOo5zopGEEATUDSqFlM6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelly Kirschner at WMNF in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 28, 2026. \/\/ Photo by Ray Roa Florida is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,139010],"class_list":["post-403676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-kelly-kirschner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403676","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=403676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}