Making it official, Charlie Crist running for mayor of St. Petersburg | St. Petersburg

Charlie Crist, the former Florida governor and congressman who has spent four decades pursuing and serving in public office, is running to be the next mayor of St. Petersburg.

Crist, who turns 70 in July, filed election paperwork at the city clerk’s office April 27. He is the seventh candidate in the race and the latest to challenge Mayor Ken Welch. With strong name recognition, high-profile executive experience and $1.1 million in cash from a political committee, Crist poses a serious challenge to the sitting mayor.

Crist told the Tampa Bay Times in an interview April 27 that he offers voters an alternative to Welch, whom Crist described as having “a lack of executive leadership.”

“St. Pete has always been a city on the rise,” Crist said. “I feel frankly, for the last four years or five, that the city’s been on a pause.”

He chalked up the city’s breakdown in relations with the Tampa Bay Rays to Welch’s poor communication. He pointed to Welch’s termination of a deal to build a Moffitt Cancer Center campus downtown, plus the lack of progress on redeveloping the city-owned marina as poor fiscal decisions, especially for Welch, an accountant.

“I think we can do better. I’m sure we can,” Crist said. “That’s why I’m running, to offer an alternative to the voters of St. Petersburg and an opportunity for us to get moving again.”

Crist said his No. 1 issue is affordability. He said while serving as governor during the Great Recession, he was the last governor to reduce property taxes.

Crist said the city has seen a 50% increase in property tax revenue under Welch, outpacing population growth and inflation. In the 2021 fiscal year, the city collected $148 million in property tax revenue. The 2026 budget included $229 million in property taxes.

Cutting property taxes, he said, is something that should be reviewed.

“That just doesn’t add up,” he said.

In a statement, Adrienne Bogen, a senior adviser to Welch, said his campaign is about a future of more housing, stronger infrastructure and opportunity in every neighborhood — “not political reruns.”

“Charlie Crist jumping into another race is about as predictable as it gets, the same hamster wheel, just a different election cycle,” the statement read. “Now he’s trying to come back to a city he’s left behind.

“Meanwhile, Ken Welch is focused on delivering real results for St. Petersburg, because he’s been here doing the hard … work and is accountable to the people who call it home.”

While the race is nonpartisan, Crist and Welch are both Democrats (and former Republicans) who have supported each other in past elections. Crist endorsed Welch for mayor in 2021. Welch endorsed Crist in his last campaign, when Crist was soundly defeated in a race to unseat Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.

“I still consider him a friend,” Crist said of Welch. “I did vote for him, I did campaign for him, but I am disappointed, like I feel a lot of citizens in St. Petersburg are.”

Crist became Florida’s 44th governor in 2007 as a Republican. Instead of seeking reelection, he ran for U.S. Senate as an Independent and lost in 2010. He became a Democrat in 2012 and unsuccessfully mounted a challenge to then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2014.

He won the 2016 race to represent Florida’s 13th congressional district, where he served for three terms before again running unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Asked about the state covering up five street murals in St. Petersburg that no longer complied with new rules, Crist said he would’ve fought that.

“I would not have given up on that,” he said. “A lot of cities in Florida have fought that.”

He said he would back the city’s support of St. Pete Pride, the largest LGBTQ+ festival in the Southeast, and retain the city’s LGBTQ+ Liaison position.

“Absolutely, of course,” said Crist, who apologized over a decade ago for previously supporting a statewide ban on gay marriage. “It’s a point of pride.”

Crist said he began getting calls from friends in St. Petersburg last spring urging him to consider running. At the time, Crist was living in Minnesota with his fiancée, Chelsea Grimes.

He moved back in August, just in time to qualify for this year’s primary election Aug. 18. If no one wins a majority, the top two candidates head to a runoff in the general election Nov. 3.

As Florida’s attorney general during Hurricane Charley in 2004, he created a price gouging hotline that’s still in use today. When Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Crist said he spent many days in the Florida Panhandle.

He compares that to Welch going home during Hurricane Ian in 2022 while other city staff stayed at the new emergency operations center at the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Crist moved to St. Petersburg when he was 3 years old and was class president at Riviera Middle School and St. Petersburg High School. This latest foray into public office, he said, is less about finding another post to run for and more of a call to action.

“If it’s something you enjoy, and you feel like you can offer something to others in that capacity, whether it’s governor or mayor in this race, I’m offering that to the people, Crist said. “They’ll decide what’s best for our community.

“I have faith in them,” he said.