Lindsay Cross cruises to re-election in HD 60 after tense battle against Ed Montanari

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Rep. Lindsay Cross is getting another term after overcoming a tough challenge from Republican Ed Montanari.

With all precincts reporting, Cross earned nearly 54% of the vote.

Cross’ House District 60, nestled within the city of St. Petersburg, was one of the rare opportunities across the state for Republicans to further grow their supermajority. The party thought they had the right man for the job in Montanari, an outgoing St. Pete City Council member known for his collegial demeanor and ability to keep friends across the aisle.

But getting past Cross was never expected to be an easy feat, and Montanari faced a couple of big obstacles. He was running against a popular incumbent, and the district still favors Democrats.

Montanari was an ideal GOP challenger for a district like HD 60. It’s blue, but not blue enough to be out of reach. And while Montanari is a strong conservative, he’s also shown plenty of ability to work across the aisle and don a moderate hat.

But Cross has herself served as an ideal Representative in a somewhat swingy district. She’s become skilled at bringing home resources for her constituents, despite serving in the minority party. And Republican colleagues, though they disagree with her on partisan issues, have worked with her on legislation.

Montanari’s campaign banked on the district trending purple. But voter registration numbers in HD 60 are tricky. On the surface, the district did seem to be shifting rightward.

Democrats enjoy a voter registration advantage of a little more than 3,000 voters, with 40,285 registered Democrats compared to 37,248 Republicans, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections’ district voter registration data from July. That’s an advantage for Cross of a little less than 3 percentage points.

A look at historic voter registration data for the district available on the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections website shows that in 2020, the last Presidential Election year, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 7 percentage points.

But those numbers include only active voters. When counting inactive voters, the advantage for Democrats — and by proxy, Cross — increases to about 6 percentage points, or about 6,000 voters.

Inactive voters are eligible to vote.

Voters are declared inactive if there is reason to believe their address has changed (usually through information provided from the U.S. Postal Service when a person provides change-of-address information) and they don’t respond to a request for updated information, or if the voter has not voted in the past two federal General Elections.

A 2023 law toughened voter roll maintenance requirements for local Supervisors of Elections, which led to nearly 1 million voters statewide being moved from active to inactive status. It imposed the two-election requirement to move voters to the inactive list.

And the trend cannot be entirely attributed to the district becoming more red. The number of active voters in the district is lower now than it was in 2020, despite population growth. And the number of inactive voters has grown every election cycle, with 7,238 voters on the inactive rolls four years ago, 12,789 in 2022 and 27,260 this year. (The district in 2020 was House District 68; it became HD 60 in 2022 as a result of redistricting.)

Cross’ campaign, asked about voter registration trends in early September, rejected the notion that the district is moving toward the GOP.

“The insinuation that only active voters count is categorically incorrect,” Cross Campaign Manager Will Shedden said. “The 60th District is trending away from Republicans, and Representative Cross led all statewide Democrats in her district because she listens and she fights on their side.”

For what was expected to be one of the most competitive House races this cycle, the campaigns have been largely quiet, and mostly void of any negative campaigning.

Cross attacked Montanari on at least one issue: abortion.

It’s a topic Democrats leaned into heavily this election cycle. It remains salient after the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, removing federal bans on strict abortion bans and kicking the issue to states. It became more salient after an Alabama Supreme Court decision threatened in vitro fertilization access. And in Florida it is especially relevant considering Cross shared the ballot with Amendment 4, an effort by reproductive freedom advocates to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution.

Cross launched an ad in late September attacking Montanari over votes he made related to abortion while serving on the City Council. To be clear, the City Council has no authority to regulate, or deregulate, abortion access. But the board did consider providing city funding to help pay for residents’ out-of-state abortion care.

Montanari voted against the measure twice. In the final vote on the abortion measure, only two City Council members voted in favor, with the others arguing the move would subject the city to potentially costly litigation as it would likely violate state preemption.

But Montanari, during that same meeting last April, also voted against a symbolic resolution supporting a women’s right to choose and urging Mayor Ken Welch’s administration not to spend money on any activity that would criminalize abortion. Montanari in that vote was one of just two Council members to vote against the resolution, with others seeing the measure as a way to show support for women without risking costly legal action.

The ad featured a local veterinarian, Dr. Abi O’Connor, somberly retells her own tragic abortion experience.

“I needed an abortion to save my life,” she explains. “So, when politicians like Ed Montanari vote against access to abortion, they’re voting against critical care for women in the worst moments of their lives. Women shouldn’t die because of extreme politicians.”

Cross is an environmental scientist with more than two decades of experience, particularly in clean water efforts in the Tampa Bay area. As such, one of her campaign priorities is ensuring access to a clean Tampa Bay and healthy drinking water.

Other campaign priorities include lowering insurance costs; stabilizing rising utility rates; increasing affordable housing options; protecting reproductive freedom; supporting small business; growing the local economy; strengthening public schools; and ensuring access to quality, affordable health care.