{"id":248754,"date":"2026-04-27T21:33:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:33:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:33:43","slug":"former-florida-gov-charlie-crist-files-to-run-for-mayor-of-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/248754\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist files to run for mayor of St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETE, Fla. \u2014 Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is officially running for mayor of St. Petersburg, after filing paperwork to enter the race.<\/p>\n<p>Crist, a St. Petersburg native, previously served as Florida\u2019s 44th governor from 2007 to 2011. He also represented the area in the U.S. House of Representatives. His candidacy marks a return to local politics after years in the state and national office.<\/p>\n<p>The mayoral race will be have incumbent Mayor Ken Welch, St. Pete Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard, community leader Maria Scruggs, Jim Large, Paul Congemi, and Kevin Batdorf.<\/p>\n<p>Election officials will now review filings and set the stage for what could be a high-profile contest in the city\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ERIK.WAXLER.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>BTS opens North American tour in Tampa, drawing thousands of fans to sold out shows<\/p>\n<p>K-pop superstars return after pandemic hiatus and military service, launching three-night run at Raymond James Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>BTS opens North American tour in Tampa, drawing thousands of fans to sold out shows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETE, Fla. \u2014 Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is officially running for mayor of St. Petersburg, after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3347,109054,109055,276,1375,109056,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,108336,3670,208],"class_list":["post-248754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-charlie-crist","tag-crist","tag-former-governor","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-mayor","tag-mayor-of-st-pete","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-28-news","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248754","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=248754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}