Kelly Kirschner
Kelly Kirschner (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 16th Congressional District. Kirschner is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. Kirschner advanced from the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026.
Kirschner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2026
See also: Florida's 16th Congressional District election, 2026
Florida's 16th Congressional District election, 2026 (August 18 Democratic primary)
Florida's 16th Congressional District election, 2026 (August 18 Republican primary)
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House Florida District 16
Kelly Kirschner (D), Sydney Gruters (R), and Mark Davis (No Party Affiliation) are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 16 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Kelly Kirschner (D)  | |
 | Sydney Gruters (R) | |
 | Mark Davis (No Party Affiliation) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary
Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 16
Kelly Kirschner (D) defeated Tamika Lyles (D), Jan Schneider (D), Jonathan Harris (D), and Glenn Pearson (D) in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 16 on August 18, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kelly Kirschner | 43.3 | 22,825 |
 | Tamika Lyles | 19.7 | 10,370 | |
 | Jan Schneider | 15.4 | 8,129 | |
 | Jonathan Harris | 12.5 | 6,580 | |
 | Glenn Pearson | 9.1 | 4,801 | |
| Total votes: 52,705 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary
Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 16
Sydney Gruters (R) defeated Eddie Speir (R) and Ed Pope (R) in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 16 on August 18, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sydney Gruters | 63.6 | 46,185 |
 | Eddie Speir | 21.0 | 15,238 | |
 | Ed Pope | 15.5 | 11,240 | |
| Total votes: 72,663 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Vern Buchanan (R)
- John Peters (R)
- James Satcher (R)
Endorsements
Kelly Kirschner received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kelly Kirschner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kirschner's responses.
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- When oil companies post record profits while we’re struggling to pay for gas, that’s not the market — it’s a rigged game. When insurance companies raise your premiums while lobbying Congress to leave them alone, that’s not business; that’s corruption with a business license. When tariff chaos hammers Florida small and medium-sized businesses, farmers, and fishermen while Wall Street hedges its bets and becomes a casino, that’s Washington gambling with someone else’s livelihood. I'm running to end price gouging by oil, electric utility, and grocery giants, hold insurance companies accountable, invest in affordable energy that lowers your bills, and tear up the tax breaks that let billionaires pay less than you do.
- There is no higher responsibility for a Member of Congress than the power to send our sons and daughters into harm’s way. Yet, for too long, Washington has treated this solemn duty as a secondary concern. Under the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. It is a moral outrage that when we face the prospect of “wars of choice,” leadership in Washington often ducks the debate, choosing to take vacations before even beginning a serious deliberation on “excursions” that cost American lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. These poorly planned conflicts, funded with blank taxpayer checks and met with a Congressional blind eye, are eroding decades of trust throughout the world and putting our children’s future in peril.
- One in three people in this district depend on Medicaid or Medicare. These aren’t handouts — they are promises made to seniors who worked their whole lives, to families doing their best, to veterans who gave their bodies and minds in service. Congress just broke that promise, stripping healthcare from nearly 280,000 of your neighbors in this district alone. I am running to restore every cut, protect every patient with a pre-existing condition, and make crystal clear to every hospital along the Gulf Coast: we are not abandoning you.
● Former US Senator Kent Conrad (D)
● Former US Congressman Dave Trott (R)
● Dr. Henry David Abraham, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
● James Story, Former US Ambassador to Venezuela
● Douglas McElhaney, Former US Ambassador to Bosnia
● Hon. Jennifer Webb, Gulfport City Council Member, Former State Representative in Pinellas
● Hon. Keith Fitzgerald, Former State Representative (Sarasota/Manatee)
● Charlie Kennedy, Manatee County School Board Member
● Liz Barker, Sarasota County School Board Member
● Tom Edwards, Sarasota County School Board Member
● Current/Former Sarasota Mayors and City Commissioners
○ Jennifer Ahearn-Koch
○ Fredd Atkins
○ Suzanne Atwell
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
