Yay ! Great ad for @KellyKirschner ! If you’re in Vern Buchanan’s Florida district ( FL-16) , don’t let Sydney Gruters ( yup , Joe’s wife) snooker you. She’s in the pockets of developers like Pat Neal and a devotee of trump.. who has made your life increasingly less affordable

If you’re in Vern Buchanan’s FL-16 district in Florida , you can’t let this happen “Naming rights to nothingness. Sydney Gruters' campaign is backed by more than $200,000 from development interests — including Carlos Beruff and his wife, who maxed out their federal contributions right after she resigned as head of the New College Foundation, where Beruff and Pat Neal had pledged $1.5 million. New College's "Field of Dreams" ballfield, bearing a donor's name, sits on ground where oaks were felled and mangroves mangled. Now Beruff wants to do it again: his "Sea Spray" project would fill three acres of one of Sarasota Bay's last natural shorelines at Long Bar Pointe, disrupting mangrove hydrology so badly that Suncoast Waterkeeper is fighting it — while Beruff's fix is to buy mitigation credits at a preserve 100+ miles away instead of repairing the damage here. As a state senator, Joe Gruters voted for SB 180 — sold as hurricane relief, now used by developers like Beruff to block local wetland and growth protections. He's using it to challenge $14 million in Manatee County impact fees for roads, parks, and public safety, and lobbyists for him and Neal quietly killed a legislative fix to the law this year. When land-use policy is written for donors instead of communities, residents inherit the flooding, pollution, and permanent loss” The only choice is @KellyKirschner .. the only one with a proven track record .Stop electing people who are ruining our counties while enriching themselves with developer money that is irreversibly taking away our natural resources

From a FB friend … well done @GWKruse ( again )… country over party DON’T sleep on Florida “Friends, today I was witness to something big. I was one of a small number of Democrats in a room full of Republicans at the Republicans for Kelly Kirschner kickoff event held in downtown Bradenton. As a Democrat, I already knew we found the right candidate for the FL-16 Congressional race. What I needed to see for my own confidence and, frankly, hope in the country, was one Republican community leader after another saying we need a change in Washington and Kelly is the person they trust with the important work of representing this community. In laudatory speech after speech, they said that Kelly was a familiar, longtime community presence; an independent voice of integrity and courage; and someone who will actually answer your questions and return your phone calls, no matter what side of the aisle you are on. 🏆Kudos to Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse in particular for being a leading voice. He is a longtime friend of Kelly's since high school and says Kelly helped him by sitting down to chat over coffee when he ran the first time, even from the other side of the aisle. He said that the Republican Party has experienced a "hostile takeover" and no matter how many people go to Washington to say they will push back on the direction of the party, no one ever does that. He said that Kirschner was even the only candidate on either side of the aisle who had contacted him about the upcoming election. I want to note how important Kruse's voice is here. In 2024, he got more votes than any elected official and is therefore arguably the most popular elected official in Manatee County. He has been an independent voice on the county commission and thoughtful writer and critical thinker about policy on his Substack. Other leading voices who were present or who couldn't make it to have lent their voices of support and endorsement include retired Judge Blue, former Manatee High School football coach Joe Kinnan, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, football legend Ray Bellamy, former Manatee Schools administrator and environmental advocate Merrie Lynn Parker, Longboat Key Commissioner B.J. Bishop, former Republican Congressman Dan Miller, Manatee community leader Xtavia Bailey, environmental advocate Rusty Chinnis, former Manatee County Commissioner Betsy Benac, and a former Georgia Lt. Governor who now lives most of the year in St. Pete. These are the Republicans willing to speak openly today. Chinnis, as emcee of the event, indicated that more Republicans will openly endorse later and they encourage others to join the movement. I was particularly taken by the concerns voiced today by those who spoke today at the event about the direction of the country. The spoke more about US foreign policy than anything else. They said they were concerned about high prices, tariffs, wars of choice, deteriorating relations with neighbors like Canada -- all of it unchecked. As an international relations professor, I worry about these things the most, too. They noted that this district is R+7 which makes it winnable. The only other time Kelly ran for office before, he was elected in a nonpartisan race to the Sarasota city commission and he won by beating special interest money and the Republican establishment. Once elected to the city commission, he became mayor and passed strong campaign finance measures and fought special interest development interests. Kelly's going to face a tidal wave of special interest dark money in this election, and he needs our support. I'm going to make another donation to Kelly's campaign today and I will be signing up for canvassing volunteer shifts because he needs people power to spread the message too. I hope you will join this broad, beautiful coalition for change in our country” VOTE @KellyKirschner FL-16 ( Vern Buchanan seat where Sen Joe Gruters (RNC committee chair) wife Sydney is running