Ken Welch supporters are playing the MAGA card; that didn’t work out great when it was deployed against their guy

Gulfport City Council Member Jennifer Webb, a Democrat and former state Representative, is asking a dangerous question: “Curious to see if St. Pete voters fall in line behind the MAGA-backed candidate.”

That’s what she posted on Facebook along with a link to a Tampa Bay Times article noting that the “GOP comes home to Charlie Crist in St. Petersburg mayor’s race.” The article spotlights Crist’s financial support from Republicans in his bid to unseat incumbent Mayor Ken Welch. Like Welch, Crist is a Democrat.

Aside from the obvious — that Crist is a Democrat and vocally opposed to Donald Trump, the father of the modern MAGA movement — Webb’s pontification has a glaring problem: This strategy has been tried before, and the results have been catastrophic.

Let’s lay out some facts right out of the gate. Crist is a former Republican, yes. But he’s been a Democrat since 2012, 14 years ago. He served in Congress as a Democrat. He also ran for Governor as a Democrat. Webb supported him in that race.

And yes, as the Times article outlines, a lot of Republicans have donated to Crist’s campaign for Mayor this year. Does that make him a Republican? Does it make him MAGA? Certainly not.

What it does is remind St. Pete voters that the Mayor’s race is nonpartisan, because the city’s top elected leader must represent all constituents, not just those with a “D” or an “R” behind their name (or those who choose to forgo party affiliation). Many of the Republicans financially supporting Crist’s bid for Mayor opposed him as Governor. This is a normal phenomenon, because politics is not one size fits all.

But now she is attempting to paint him as a “MAGA-backed” candidate, in hopes of propping up her preferred choice for Mayor: Welch.

Webb either has a short memory, or a selective one, because this tactic has been tried before in recent election cycles, and in both instances, it failed miserably. The most recent example pointedly involved the mayoral candidate Webb is backing.

In 2021, facing a credible challenge from former St. Petersburg City Council Member Darden Rice, Welch was called out by Rice’s campaign for accepting donations from Republican donors. Mailers supporting Rice and opposing Welch attempted to tie Welch to Trump.

The message was widely panned as ridiculous. For example, Allendale United Methodist Pastor Andy Oliver, who supported Welch in 2021 but has since become critical, called Rice out for the attack, arguing she had taken more money from Republican donors than Welch had. Rice was at the time, and still is, considered a progressive Democrat. No one would dream of accusing her of being tied to MAGA politics. Yet that’s what she did to Welch.

Rice went on to lose the Primary in 2021 and, ironically, it was Republican Robert Blackmon who advanced to a runoff with Welch. Rice had previously supported Blackmon in his bid for City Council, making her criticism extra rich. The MAGA attacks on Welch were widely blamed for Rice’s electoral downfall that year.

And that’s not all.

Even before that, in 2019, the campaign for Democrat Orlando Acosta attempted to tie its opponent in a race for St. Pete City Council — then-incumbent Ed Montanari — to Trump. Montanari is ACTUALLY a Republican, yet the critique was widely dismissed as tone-deaf. Even Rice rejected it as ridiculous. Why? Because City Council, like the Mayor’s seat, is nonpartisan.

Acosta was always the underdog in that race, but the attempt to paint Montanari, a celebrated moderate at the time, as a MAGA rubber stamp backfired, and Acosta went on to lose the race to Montanari by 8 percentage points.

And now here we are, several years later, and the pattern is emerging yet again.

I get it. Trump is a powerful political figure. For Republicans, his support often means success. For Democrats, support for the current President is the kiss of death. In a Midterm year expected to favor anti-Trump sentiment — vis-à-vis, Democrats — the MAGA card will undoubtedly be successful in some races.

But as history has proven, playing the MAGA card in St. Pete municipal races, against people who have zero affiliation or allegiance to Trump, is a political liability.

Here’s why.

In no world could Crist be painted with the MAGA brush. Crist was nominated by former Democratic President Joe Biden — who defeated Trump in 2020 — as Ambassador to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency under the auspices of the United Nations. While that nomination was ultimately never confirmed, it was a nomination from a Democratic President nonetheless.

Further, Biden participated in a fundraiser for Crist in Miami during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign. In 2021, Crist called for invoking the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove Trump from office. That’s not very MAGA.

Crist’s disdain for Trump is mutual. Trump once called Crist a “puppet” of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

And then there’s policy. As a U.S. Representative and candidate for Governor, Crist has supported countless policies that are antithetical to the Trump mindset.

Where the MAGA brand derides various LGBTQ+ protections and supportive policies, Crist has been an ally. Several LGBTQ+ advocacy groups backed Crist for Governor in 2022. And in that campaign Crist vowed that, if elected, he would “sign an executive order to protect LGBTQ Floridians from Discrimination.” He also said he’d repeal the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law. That’s not very MAGA.

A little Googling will turn up countless other examples of policy support highlighting just how not-MAGA Crist is.

But here’s the thing: It doesn’t even matter.

It bears repeating that this is a nonpartisan election. Crist has plenty of support from Democrats. Even some of Welch’s previous Democratic supporters have switched allegiance to Crist, including state Sen. Darryl Rouson, among others.

When Acosta attacked Montanari as a MAGA Republican, it was out of desperation. Acosta was running against a registered Republican in what was then St. Petersburg’s only Republican-leaning district. When Rice did the same thing the next year, she was attempting to gain ground in a very competitive mayoral Primary.

In both instances, it backfired.

Now history is repeating itself, and there’s no reason to think the outcome will be any different.

The bottom line: Don’t make ridiculous claims you can’t back up.

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Ed. note: Michelle Todd Schorsch is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.