A Democrat political newcomer won over a sitting commissioner in a tight race for a countywide Pinellas County Commission seat.
Suncoast Sierra Club Conservation Committee Chair Tim Hughes won over incumbent Republican Commissioner Brian Scott, who trailed by around one point.
This is Scott’s first reelection campaign.
This is Hughes’ first seat in elected office. He’s lived in Clearwater for nearly three years and previously was an environmental specialist in Prince William County in Virginia. Hughes has said he wants to help Pinellas better coordinate with its 24 municipalities and unincorporated areas. The 68-year-old also said he wants to create a long-term plan for a railway system from Tampa to Orlando.
Scott, 58, serves the entire county in his seat. He runs a charter bus company his parents started in St. Petersburg in the 1980s. His first election in 2022 tipped the commission to a Republican majority for the first time in nearly a decade.
Scott has championed transit-related issues in his time on the commission. He’s served on the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority board, which oversees the county’s bus and transportation system. He’s also advocated for a regional transportation planning organization, which would collaborate transportation systems between Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.
Commissioner Kathleen Peters, a 65-year-old former state House representative, won over interior designer David Glenn Jr. for the District 6 seat. Peters earned 55.1% of the vote.
The elected commissioners could be decision-makers in key county issues, including the development of about 25 acres of county-owned property in downtown Clearwater and continued recovery from the 2024 hurricanes.
Peters represents District 6, which covers south and central Pinellas and coastal neighborhoods on both sides of the peninsula. She’s leading Glenn, an architect and interior designer who has lived in the county for more than 20 years.
Peters has served on the Opioid Abatement Fund Advisory board and championed mental health reform in her time in the state Legislature. More recently, she’s pushed for a ban on large-scale data centers in Pinellas.
Glenn, 56, is seeking his first seat in elected office.
Both incumbents out-fundraised and outspent their opponents by tens of thousands of dollars. Scott received nearly $190,000 in individual contributions to his campaign. His opponent, Hughes, received about $43,000.
