{"id":12811,"date":"2025-10-20T19:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12811\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T19:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:48:06","slug":"charlie-crist-weighing-st-petersburg-mayoral-candidacy-%c2%b7-the-floridian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12811\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Crist Weighing St. Petersburg Mayoral Candidacy \u00b7 The Floridian"},"content":{"rendered":"

After facing a devastating loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race, former Governor Charlie Crist (D)<\/a> largely remained out of the political sphere. However, the former conservative turned ardent progressive has entered the spotlight again, and this time it\u2019s because he may be mulling over another political run.<\/p>\n

First reported by the Tampa Bay Times, former Governor Christ appears to be considering a run for mayor of St. Petersburg in the upcoming 2026 election.<\/p>\n

According to Crist, he is weighing his options, and he plans to discuss his decision with his family before committing to the mayoral race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome is where the heart is,\u201d he said during an interview<\/a>, referencing St. Petersburg. \u201cI never want to leave St. Petersburg. Having the opportunity \u2013 if we decide to do so \u2013 to fight for St. Pete in an executive position, which I\u2019ve held several, would be an incredible honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Ken Welch, who first assumed office in 2022, is expected to seek re-election, so Crist would have to run a primary<\/a> before making it to the general election.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Crist elected to run for the U.S. Senate as an Independent, losing to then-Senator Marco Rubio<\/a> (R). In the 2012 election, he endorsed President Barack Obama (D), which set up his new political life as a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Having previously served as Governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as Republican, Crist once again sought the Governor\u2019s Mansion in 2022, running a failing bid against incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis<\/a> (R).<\/p>\n

Receiving roughly 40% of the vote<\/a> compared to Governor DeSantis\u2019 59%, the aftermath of the election, coupled with the 2024 presidential election, also saw Florida become a more conservative state.<\/p>\n

So far, the Brandi Gabbard, a St. Petersburg city councilor, is the only one to declare her candidacy, so time will tell if former Governor Christ will try yet again to make it into public office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After facing a devastating loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race, former Governor Charlie Crist (D) largely remained out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11580,11581,10906,3300,3347,28,4833,2346,8877,412,202,204,203,199,201,200,11582],"class_list":["post-12811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-2022-gubernatorial-election","tag-2026-st-petersburg-mayoral-race","tag-barack-obama","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-charlie-crist","tag-florida","tag-florida-politics","tag-ken-welch","tag-marco-rubio","tag-ron-desantis","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-the-floridian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}