{"id":454,"date":"2025-10-13T20:47:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T20:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/454\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T20:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T20:47:06","slug":"kyandra-darling-continues-to-dominate-hd-62-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/454\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyandra Darling continues to dominate HD 62 fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyandra Darling is dominating fundraising in what is so far a three-way race to replace state Rep. Michele Rayner in House District 62, as Rayner vacates the seat to run for Senate.<\/p>\n

Darling raised<\/a> more than $15,000 in the third quarter of 2025, bringing her total funds raised to nearly $69,000. With more than $43,000 in expenditures, Darling maintains just over $25,000 in her campaign account.<\/p>\n

Still, her cash on hand eclipses former state Rep. Wengay Newton, who has about $11,000 on hand<\/a>, and Rayner\u2019s legislative aide, Upton Fisher, who has raised just $3,350 to date<\/a>\u00a0and spent it all.<\/p>\n

Darling\u2019s fundraising activity is primarily grassroots, with just three contributions at the maximum $1,000 level. Her average contribution totals just $122. The three top donors come from the group Moms Fed Up, a political committee based in Washington, D.C.; the Trusted Leadership Political Committee<\/a>, which contributes primarily to Democrats; and Bill Edwards, a prominent St. Pete business leader who typically backs Republicans.<\/p>\n

Newton raised less than $7,000 in the most recent fundraising quarter, including a top contribution from Big 3 Entertainment, which was founded by Edwards.<\/p>\n

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

Newton represented the district before Rayner. After leaving office, he tried to\u00a0win the seat back<\/a>\u00a0against Rayner after two failed bids for local office, first for Pinellas County Commission and then St. Pete Mayor. He later ran for St. Pete City Council for the seat he held before being elected to the House, a race he also lost.<\/p>\n

Darling is a former staffer for former U.S. Rep.\u00a0Charlie Crist\u00a0and worked as a legislative aide to former St. Pete City Council member\u00a0Steve Kornell and former St. Pete City Council member\u00a0Lisa Wheeler-Bowman. Darling has also worked in the nonprofit sector, collaborating with more than 40 nonprofit organizations serving health equity, education and economic opportunity issues in the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n

HD 62 leans heavily Democratic, with more than 49% of the electorate registered as Democrats compared to just 19% Republicans, according to the most recent L2 voter data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest fundraising numbers come as speculation continues to swirl<\/a> that state Sen. Darryl Rouson may jump into the race. He currently represents Senate District 16, the seat Rayner is seeking. Rouson represented House District 62 in its previous iteration prior to being elected to the Senate.<\/p>\n

While Darling appears the early front-runner in the race as it currently stands, Rouson\u2019s entrance could make her path to victory more challenging. Rouson has served in the Legislature since his first election to the House in 2008. He moved to the Senate in 2016. By the time he reaches term limits in the Senate and leaves office, his legislative career will have spanned about 18 years.<\/p>\n

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

Rouson has not publicly weighed in on whether he will run for the House seat, but sources close to him have said it\u2019s an open discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyandra Darling is dominating fundraising in what is so far a three-way race to replace state Rep. Michele…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[820,821,822,823,824,202,204,203,199,201,200,825,826],"class_list":{"0":"post-454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-darryl-rouson","9":"tag-hd-62","10":"tag-house-district-62","11":"tag-kyandra-darling","12":"tag-michele-rayner","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news","19":"tag-upton-fisher","20":"tag-wengay-newton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","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=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}