{"id":6727,"date":"2025-10-16T15:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:43:07","slug":"former-florida-governor-charlie-crist-considers-2026-run-for-mayor-big-105-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6727\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist Considers 2026 Run For Mayor | BIG 105.9"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg, FL – Former Florida Governor and U.S. Representative Charlie Crist has confirmed that he is seriously considering a run for mayor of St. Petersburg in the 2026 election. <\/p>\n

Crist made the announcement on Wednesday, stating that he is evaluating the possibility and plans to discuss the decision with his family before making a final commitment. <\/p>\n

Hear Ryan Gorman and Dana McKay cover this story and more on The Ryan Gorman Show<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The current mayor, Ken Welch, who took office in January 2022 as St. Petersburg\u2019s first Black mayor, is expected to seek re-election.<\/p>\n

Crist previously served as Florida\u2019s governor from 2007 to 2011.<\/p>\n

Originally a Republican, he later ran for the U.S. Senate as an independent and joined the Democratic Party in 2012.<\/p>\n

After several years away from elected office, he represented Florida\u2019s 13th congressional district from 2017 until resigning in 2022 to run for governor. In that race, he lost to incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis by 19 points.<\/p>\n

Following the election, he was nominated by the Biden administration to serve as U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.<\/p>\n

The 2026 St. Petersburg mayoral primary is scheduled for August 18, with a potential runoff on November 3 if no candidate secures a majority.<\/p>\n

Crist has not formally declared his candidacy but described himself as \u201cstrongly considering\u201d entering the race.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the need to consult with his family before making a final decision.<\/p>\n

As of now, no other candidates have officially announced their intention to run for mayor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg, FL – Former Florida Governor and U.S. Representative Charlie Crist has confirmed that he is seriously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3347,2811,1089,6281,2346,1375,7228,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-6727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-charlie-crist","tag-election","tag-family","tag-governor","tag-ken-welch","tag-mayor","tag-run","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727","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=6727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}