By Ethan Perelstein/The Gabber
On the 11th day of Women’s History Month, after a long, hard-fought local election season full of forums, food, and Facebook, Gulfport’s electorate elected the city’s first all-female city council.
Karen Love won the race for Gulfport mayor with 55.29% of the vote. Incumbent Sam Henderson and hopeful John Liccione won 39.20% and 5.51%, respectively.
Polls closed at 7 p.m., and at 7:03 p.m., with 980 early votes for mayor and 977 for Ward II came in on the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) website: still too close to call.
Some 15 minutes later, 100% of the precincts reported unofficial election results.
The voters have spoken: They want change.
Image by The Gabber Newspaper
Gulfport Mayor Karen Love
Gulfport’s first new mayor since 2013, Love also calls herself the “Playful Painter” in Gulfport. She spent most of her day outside the polling location at city hall, talking to voters and holding a sign.
“I’m not surprised by the results. I feel fantastic,” Love told The Gabber Newspaper at her watch party at Stormrunner’s Tavern.
At 7:30 p.m., Love walked around updating everyone about Shaw’s progress with celebration.
“Marlene is winning even bigger than I am,” she said.
At 7:34 p.m., Love learned that she’d won.
She announced her victory to the crowd at Stormrunners. Supporters cheered and clapped for her; some gave her hugs.
“Many times today, the best compliment that just broke my heart was when the total number of strangers who said ‘you and your team ran a great campaign’ and that meant everything because that showed my management skills to go out and pick the right people to be on my team and how everybody did their job,” Love said to the crowd.
“We, in the last few days, wanted to really fight back and get mad, we vented with each other and we had very wise people that said ‘zip it’,” she added.
These are the 2025 Gulfport mayoral election results. Here are the results for Ward II council member, and the South Pinellas election results.
Photo by Cameron Healy
Tides of Change: Words From Outgoing Council Members
“I congratulate our new mayor and council member,” Henderson told The Gabber Newspaper Tuesday night. “They won fair and square; that’s the beauty of democracy. The people make the choice. I am pulling for you both to govern wisely, rely on the expertise of our City staff and treat them as teammates, and plan for the long-term success that I know is in our future. No one person, from mayor on down, does the job of keeping this City on track. It is a team effort. Thanks to those who believed in me, trusted me with this task for all these years, and thanks to everyone who voted. Gulfport has been here for over 100 years, and now we are entrusting that stewardship to new public servants. We put our faith in you today, and I hope you will do the best you can for everyone in our dear city. Cheers, Gulfport.”
Henderson served as mayor from 2013 to 2025. He first sat on city council as the Ward IV representative in 2009.
Henderson called both Love and Shaw, but got their voicemails.
This story originally appeared in The Gabber
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