Former Sarasota Mayor Kelly Kirschner just jumped into the open race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan.
He hopes to flip the seat blue and join a Congress with more fresh blood than seen in years.
“It’s an open congressional seat, and it comes when there is a level of frustration across the country with our entire political system, not just with what is happening now in the House, Senate and White House,” Kirschner told Florida Politics. “We are incapable of having serious conversations about the serious problems that our country faces.”
Kirschner rose from a neighborhood activist to City Commissioner, and in 2010, became one of the youngest Mayors in Sarasota history. He also served as director of the Hispanic advocacy group UnidosNow.
Kirschner left Sarasota to join the administration for Eckerd College in St. Petersburg as Vice President and Dean of the Division of Executive and Continuing Education. He worked at the college until last year and now operates as a consultant
Now, he’s jumping in a federal race not only following an announcement Buchanan will step down after two decades in Congress, but days after Florida’s Legislature approved a new congressional map reshaping Florida’s 16th Congressional District. Under that map, the district includes parts of south Pinellas County, including Eckerd College, as well as all of Manatee County and eastern Sarasota County. It also stretches east to DeSoto and Hardee counties.
That leaves a district that still leans Republican. About 56.2% of voters in CD 16 under the proposed map supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election, compared to under 42.7% who backed Democrat Kamala Harris.
Kirschner, in contrast, has long been a Democrat. He attended the 2016 Democratic National Committee as a delegate for Bernie Sanders. But he expects his political message to reach voters across the political spectrum.
“Working families were promised relief eighteen months ago. What they got instead was higher rent, higher insurance, higher gasoline, and higher grocery bills,” Kirschner said in a statement announcing his campaign.
“For decades, billionaires, lobbyists and corporations have treated Congress like a vending machine: insert dollars, receive influence. 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.”
In that sense, a national redistricting war among red and blue states may serve DeSantis and other reform candidates well. Whatever party controls the House next year, it appears likely that numerous freshman lawmakers will be sworn in this January.
While Kirschner has long been involved in progressive politics, his father, the late Kerry Kirschner, was a Republican and prominent business leader in Sarasota County. He led the Argus Foundation for years, and also served as a Sarasota Mayor.
The race opened up at an appropriate time in Kelly Kirschner’s own life, as he looks at two of his children graduating high school in the next two years. “I don’t want to look back when I am 60, 65 and 70 and regret I did not take my shot,” he said.
While Kirschner hopes to go to Congress and work with leaders like Sanders, he also comes in with a message about the nation’s escalating national debt, also a longtime complaint of Buchanan’s.
“In spite of incredible gerrymandering, a big coalition and a big tent of Democrats, Republicans and NPA voters are tired of this type of politics,” Kirschner said. “I feel my experience in local public service was impactful and rewarding and I was able to accomplish things. I feel similarly energized and animated to find a way to do things now.”
