St. Petersburg, FL – A veteran Florida politician is launching a new campaign that shifts his focus from state and federal roles to local leadership.<\/p>\n
Former governor Charlie Crist has officially entered the 2026 mayoral race in St Petersburg after filing the required paperwork with city officials. <\/p>\n
The move marks a return to public office at the municipal level for Crist, who previously served as governor from 2007 to 2011 and later represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Crist said his decision to run is tied to his connection to the city, where he was raised and began his political career. .<\/p>\n
He indicated that the mayoral role would allow him to focus on issues affecting local residents, including economic development, infrastructure and community planning.<\/p>\n
The race is expected to include multiple candidates. Incumbent mayor Ken Welch has already filed for reelection, and additional challengers have also entered the contest.<\/p>\n
The election is scheduled for August 2026, with a runoff election later in the year if no candidate receives a majority of the vote.<\/p>\n
Crist enters the race with extensive political experience and name recognition across Florida.<\/p>\n
Campaign filings indicate he has begun organizing fundraising efforts and outreach ahead of the election.<\/p>\n
Officials have not reported any legal issues related to the campaign filing, as the process follows standard election procedures.<\/p>\n
The race is expected to develop further as candidates outline their platforms and engage with voters in the months leading up to the election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg, FL – A veteran Florida politician is launching a new campaign that shifts his focus from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7886,3347,187,2811,28,6354,7269,1375,78226,109400,202,204,203,199,201,200,914,13469],"class_list":{"0":"post-249854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-campaign","9":"tag-charlie-crist","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-focus","14":"tag-leadership","15":"tag-mayor","16":"tag-politician","17":"tag-roles","18":"tag-st-pete","19":"tag-st-pete-headlines","20":"tag-st-pete-news","21":"tag-st-petersburg","22":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","23":"tag-st-petersburg-news","24":"tag-state","25":"tag-veteran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249854","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=249854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}