ST. PETERBURG, Fla. — Mayor Rick Kriseman is backing former Pinellas County commissioner Ken Welch in the race to succeed him as St. Petersburg mayor later this year.

“Ken is a uniter, and the time has come from me, and I hope all those who have supported me over the years, to also unite behind Ken Welch,” Kriseman said at a press conference on the steps of City Hall next to Welch and City Council member Lisa Wheeler-Bowman.

Kriseman went on to say that none of the eight candidates on the ballot are as prepared as Welch is to move St. Petersburg forward.

“I’m looking at it from who I think is best-positioned and best-ready to lead the city beyond my time,” he said when asked if it was a tough choice to decide on who to endorse. “Of all the candidates, there was a clear choice, and it was Ken Welch.”

The endorsement is a big notch in the belt for Welch, who served 20 years on the Pinellas County Commission from 2000-2020. He is the son of David T. Welch, who became only the second Black man elected to the St. Pete City Council in 1981. If elected, Ken Welch would become the city's first Black mayor.

The endorsement comes two days after a controversial mailer hit mailboxes in St. Petersburg from Council member Darden Rice’s political action committee, Friends of Darden Rice. The piece attacked Welch, accusing him of receiving thousands of dollars in contributions from Donald Trump supporters, for "abusing his position of power for personal gain", for being endorsed by "Trump supporters who opposed body cameras for police officers and criminal justice reform,” and for being endorsed by “Republicans and major Trump allies who attacked our constitutional rights."

Welch said Monday he was disappointed that the Rice campaign had gone negative.

“That’s just really disappointing that we’ve sunk this low already,” Welch said following the ceremony. “I expected more. I think people in St. Pete are concerned about the future of our city and the issues that we’ve talked about like housing and neighborhood safety and not this kind of sleazy politics. So it’s just really disappointing. And just patently false.”

Welch acknowledged that while he has received campaign contributions from people who contributed to Trump, he said that Rice has “received a lot more.”

The Friends of Darden Rice PAC has taken campaign contributions from New York City supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis and St. Petersburg businessman Bill Edwards, both of whom were Trump supporters who contributed money to the former president's campaigns.

Regarding the charge that he has been endorsed by Trump supporters who opposed body cameras for police officers and criminal justice reform, the allegation is aimed at Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, a Republican who has backed Welch for mayor.

It’s accurate to report that Gualtieri previously opposed body cameras, but that’s no longer the case. The sheriff told the Tampa Bay Times last summer that, “I’m more open now to it than I have been in the past," and after a 30-day trial program in the fall, Gualtieri said he was completely in support of body-worn cameras.

Gualtieri has expressed opposition to criminal justice reform legislation proposed in Tallahassee.

Rice herself drew criticism in 2019 from some Democrats about her progressive bona fides, however, when she endorsed Republican Robert Blackmon for city council. Blackmon is now running against her for mayor.

The claim that Welch “abused his power for personal gain” is in reference to Tampa Bay Times reports in 2018 that Welch lobbied public officials to hire a nonprofit to take over a taxpayer-funded literacy program that in turn had promised to hire his wife. In writing about the issue days later, the Tampa Bay Times editorial board took Welch to task, writing in an editorial titled, “Ken Welch’s obvious conflict of interest” that it was “an obvious conflict of interest for any public official to lobby other officials on behalf of their spouse, particularly when taxpayer money is involved.”

Welch said he would not respond in kind, saying that he’s focused on a positive message and that he believes the public is “tired of the sleazy politics.”

“We’re not going down that road,” he said. “The reason we have endorsements that look like our community is because we’ve worked with folks on affordable housing, on homeless issues, on infrastructure. And we’re going to continue to do that.”

Rice has been criticized on social media over the past few days for the mailer, with some supporters now saying that they were so turned off by it that they are switching their allegiance to Welch. When asked for comment on Monday, Rice responded via email, addressing only a part of the mailer.

“The voters deserve to know who the true progressive is in this race for Mayor,” she said. “Ken gladly touted the endorsement of one of the most regressive sheriffs in the state, who has literally stood behind President Trump and Governor DeSantis. Now he is standing behind Ken, and as a lifelong progressive, I have concerns about that.”

The primary election is just five weeks away, set for Aug. 24, with vote-by-mail ballots scheduled to be sent out later this week. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, the top two contenders will face off in November.

In addition to Rice, Welch and Blackmon, five other candidates are on the Aug. 24 ballot for mayor: Michael Ingram, Torry Nelson, Wengay Newton, Pete Boland and Marcile Powers.