Sarasota's youngest mayor joins race to fill Buchanan's Congressional seat

Former Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner, a Democrat, has officially filed his candidacy for Florida’s 16th Congressional District, an office that will be open after the retirement of incumbent U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan after his current term expires.

In a new set of boundaries for the district represented by Buchanan, the 16th now encompasses portions of Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties and still leans Republican.

“Working families were promised relief eighteen months ago. What they got instead was higher rent, higher insurance, higher gasoline, and higher grocery bills. For decades, billionaires, lobbyists, and corporations have treated Congress like a vending machine: insert dollars, receive influence,” said Kirschner. “The result is a system where we pay more for groceries, prescriptions and rent while they pay less in taxes. Our kids inherit the debt while big donors gobble up the tax breaks.”

Kirschner joins a field of 10 other candidates, according to the Florida Department of State, including Republican Sydney Gruters, the wife of national GOP Chair Joe Gruters.

Kirschner, 51, is the son of the late Kerry Kirschner, who led the Argus Foundation and also was mayor of Sarasota. 

He  was elected in 2007 and named mayor in 2010,  an office he held before moving on to work at Eckerd College as vice president and dean of the division of executive and continuing education. He remains a consultant for the south Pinellas County institution.

As a neighborhood activist, mayor and commissioner, he successfully took on interests like Florida Power & Light, Walmart, and  developers. His record also included leading the charge in 2009 to pass the strongest municipal campaign finance reform legislation in Florida’s history.

Kirschner was founding director of UnidosNow.org and was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala.

Primary elections are in August, and the general election in November.