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Kelly Kirschner says he is running a campaign that puts accountability at the forefront. The former Sarasota mayor is running for Florida’s 16th Congressional District against opponent Republican Sydney Gruters. The district seat was left vacant by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan.
The six-county district encompasses portions of St. Petersburg, Gulfport, Pinellas County’s barrier islands, Manatee County, eastern Sarasota County, DeSoto County, Hardee County and southern Polk County. With Pinellas and Manatee counties accounting for approximately 85% of the district’s population, Kirschner has placed particular emphasis on connecting with voters in those communities, specifically Black voters.
According to an August campaign poll shared exclusively by Kirschner’s team, Kirschner led opponent Sydney Gruters 53% to 19% among Black respondents, with 28% undecided.
His initiatives around healthcare — including Black maternal health, Social Security, Medicare, affordable housing, and education — has resonated with many Black voters in Pinellas.
“Black families in south St. Pete are dealing with the same insurance bills, healthcare costs and rising rents as everyone else in this district, and too often their voices aren’t heard,” Kirschner shared with Power Broker.
His campaign has also secured endorsements from several local prominent Black community leaders, including Pinellas County Commissioner René Flowers, St. Petersburg City Councilmember Deborah Figgs-Sanders and former Sarasota mayors Willie Charles Shaw and Fredd Atkins.
In an exclusive interview with Power Broker, Kirschner discussed his campaign’s support among Black voters, the importance of representation and accountability and the priorities he hopes to advance in Washington if elected.
The following Q&A is a combination of email responses and Kirschner’s appearance on Power Broker’s Power of the Vote Collective virtual fireside chat on Sept. 28.
PB: What percentage of your total Black vote is in the Pinellas portion of your district, approximately, if you know?
KIRSCHNER: Pinellas is home to over 56% of Florida (16th congressional district) Black voters, concentrated in south St. Petersburg. Under the governor’s new map, that community was carved out of the district Congresswoman Castor represented and attached to a district that runs all the way to Arcadia and Wauchula. They didn’t ask to be redrawn, and they deserve a representative who shows up. Our campaign is in St. Pete every day earning their trust and their votes.
PB: Your district is a coastal community. There are a number of risks and due diligence that any person sitting in federal office needs to be aware of and planning to do something about. Talk about your experience in mobilizing communities around the environment, climate change, and the risks of hurricane and other disasters, and what would you do to mitigate, or to mitigate, disaster in that regard?
KIRSCHNER: So you are correct. This is definitely a coastal district that includes the entirety of Southern Pinellas, stretching from North Redington Beach all the way down to the entirety of the city of St. Petersburg, Gulfport, and all of the barrier islands on the beaches, as well as Manatee County, and then we go inland to East Sarasota County, all of DeSoto County, all of Hardee County, and all of southern Polk County.
The speed with FEMA recovery. So let me first say that as a member of Congress starting in January of 2027, representing a very vulnerable area of our country here in Florida, the first thing we need to prioritize is that FEMA is fully funded and FEMA is empowered to be proactive in really hardening communities, especially in the wake of a disaster like what we saw two years ago with one category 4 (Milton) and then immediately followed by a category 5 storm (Helene) in literally one week period of time. I think when you think about what is impacted from these storms, particularly in Pinellas County and areas of flood zones.
We have many neighborhoods that need to be addressed with infrastructure improvements to stormwater management. We have neighborhoods that are continuously flooding and really houses need to be elevated so that we're not, you know, paying out these incredible sums every year that impact all of us with our property insurance bills. And so there needs to be programs that are backed by FEMA.
PB: Affordable housing keeps coming up over and over and over again on the campaign trail. How will you, in the federal office, collaborate with both state, county and city governments to ensure that there is a consistent message coming out of Washington on making affordable housing a top concern ?
KIRSCHNER: You have metro areas, including Miami and Tampa, that are now getting to be more expensive than Manhattan. I don't think any of us ever thought that we would see that. Programs, particularly through HUD and the Housing and Urban Development Office, that have historically supported access, particularly first-time homebuyers to housing, but also that have vibrant programs that are revitalizing public housing, that are funding Section 8 vouchers, and that actually will be market-based, that give people access to housing and communities, are critically important. That is what we're seeing in these areas … we have generations of residents that have grown up in St. Petersburg that can no longer afford to live here. And they are now buying homes in Parrish, south of the Skyway Bridge and they're commuting back into St. Petersburg.
It has to be a partnership between federal, state, and local governments on how we expand these programs and cut red tape and ensure that the access for families that need that access is there. And it is not just for home buyers, it is also for access to affordable rentals as well. And that mix has to be present with a very strong Office of Housing and Urban Development.
PB: One of the challenges that we face as people, as humans, is healthcare. What are you considering as a plan of action to ensure that healthcare is more affordable?
KIRSCHNER: In December, our Congress allowed the tax credits for the ACA marketplace, Obamacare, to expire. That immediately led to, for some families, as small as a $400 increase. Other families that I've spoken to in this district, over $2,000 per month. That would be a $24,000 increase. Families are putting money away every month and hoping that they don't have a health emergency. We have people that are fleeing their insurance because they can't afford it, and now they're going to the emergency room when, God forbid, something happens.
What I would work towards in Congress is to restore those tax credits, for families to have a much more affordable plan. I think we should take this administration up on what they've said since 2016, that they would be bringing a plan forward that would be an alternative to Obamacare that would bring affordable health care to all citizens of this country. It's been a decade that's not forthcoming and so in the absence of something forth. coming. I think it is incumbent upon us as Congress to start advancing those solutions that address these types of things that again allow families to thrive.
PB: Regarding healthcare, can you talk about improving and or expanding access to resources, including maternal health and mental health?
KIRSCHNER: Rep. Lauren Underwood is the youngest African American woman ever elected to Congress, and one of her biggest issues is on maternal health, particularly for African American women. At one point when I was mayor of Sarasota, I was on the board of Sarasota County's Healthy Start, and the health outcomes, particularly of Black women, compared to any other demographic in this country in terms of maternal health. The disparities there are shocking and continue to be an issue. And so one of the things that I'll say is that's something that Rep. Underwood has been championing since she got in office and that I would on day one seek to co-sponsor legislation that starts to address that and supports and empowers communities throughout this country to address those disparities, because there is no reason that, based upon your zip code, the color of your skin, that those health outcomes should be any different than anyone else
PB: How do you plan to support small businesses?
KIRSCHNER: Over 60% of job growth in this country comes from small and medium-sized businesses. I'm intimately familiar with here in St. Petersburg by virtue of my work on the board of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete, as well as work on the City Advisory Council for the Southside Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) and looking in both spaces on how do we provide greater access to support, to capital, to markets for small businesses?
The Small Business Administration, like so many others that have seen DOGE cuts…
I think we need to do a much better job of starting to center the efforts of the government at the vast majority of citizens that are really hurting… 47%.of this congressional district are living paycheck to paycheck. And so every day as a member of Congress, I should be asking. Who is this serving? Is this benefiting the majority of our residents, of these small businesses, including minority business owners? Are they getting the access that historically they haven't had? And if not, then what are the levers we need to pull that increase that access?
PB: Which current U.S. representatives or senators are role models whose leadership reflects how you will work and fight in D.C.?
KIRSCHNER: Andy Kim and Rob Sand. Andy took on New Jersey’s rigged party-line ballot system when everyone told him to wait his turn, and he won. Rob isn’t in Congress but running for governor of Iowa. As Iowa’s auditor, he’s followed the money no matter whose party it embarrassed. That’s the job. Corruption isn’t an abstract Washington problem. It’s why your insurance premium keeps climbing, why a drug costs triple what it should, why the same issues show up on the ballot every two years and never get fixed. Somebody is getting paid to keep them unsolved. I’m going to Washington to work for the people paying the bills, not the people sending them.
PB: What are your day one priorities if you win this seat?
KIRSCHNER: 1. Keep a roof overhead and stay healthy. Families are dropping health coverage just to keep the home insurance their mortgage requires. I’ll fight for a national catastrophic reinsurance backstop so Floridians aren’t carrying a risk the whole country should share, and I’ll work to expand the ACA, reverse Medicaid cuts, and let Medicare negotiate more drug prices.
2. Get the money out. Those fixes haven’t happened because the people writing the big checks are in the room. I’ll vote to ban stock trading by members of Congress and their families and pass the DISCLOSE Act, issues I’ve worked on for twenty years.
3. Protect Social Security and Medicare. You paid into them with every paycheck. I won’t vote to cut them or raise the retirement age. Those are earned benefits that will be paid to the beneficiaries.
Early voting ends Nov. 1 in Pinellas County.
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