Michele Rayner will run for Florida Senate in 2026

Share
A Florida state rep talking inside a radio studio
Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby inside the WMNF studio in Tampa, Florida on July 21, 2023. / Photo by Ben Montgomery

©2024 The News Service of Florida

Weeks after her reelection to the Florida House, state Rep. Michele Rayner announced she will run for the state Senate in 2026.

Rayner, a St. Petersburg Democrat elected to the House in 2022, is seeking to succeed Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, who will leave Senate District 16 in 2026 due to term limits.

The district is made up of parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Rayner, an attorney, announced her candidacy in a social media post on Monday, pledging to “continue to hold members of the majority party, state and federal government accountable to Florida families, bring resources back to our community, and fight for every Floridian.”

Republicans hold a 85-35 supermajority in the state House, and the GOP also has a supermajority in the Senate.

“I know right now we need leaders who will work to bring our communities together instead of leaders who are fighting for a radical agenda by dividing us,” Rayner posted on X.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Tampa ranks #18 of 50 largest U.S. cities for household bills

Listen: A new report shows Tampa ranks 18th out of...

The Scoop: Wed. Dec. 4, 2024, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

Chronister withdraws as Trump’s pick to head the DEA President-elect...

Chad Chronister
Chad Chronister drops out of consideration for Trump’s DEA

Chad Chronister declined the DEA appointment saying he looks "forward...

Citizens Property Insurance
Citizens Property Insurance policies drop below 1 million in Florida

The number of Floridians insured by Citizens Property Insurance is...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Traffic Jam Wednesday
Player position: