Former FL Gov. Charlie Crist Officially Running For St. Pete Mayor

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has officially joined the St. Pete 2026 mayoral race.

Crist posted a video of himself walking down the front steps of St. Petersburg City Hall on Monday carrying a candidate handbook.

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“Well, it’s official. I’m now a candidate for mayor of St Pete. God bless you all,” he said in the video.

Crist, a St. Pete native, served as governor from 2007 to 2011, and was the U.S. House representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district from 2017 to 2022.

Though he only filed on Monday, it’s been known that he planned to run for mayor.

St. Pete Shines, a political committee supporting Crist’s candidacy, has raised more than $1.2 million, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Crist is one of seven candidates vying for the seat, so far, including incumbent Mayor Ken Welch.

The other candidates in the race are former Shore Acres Civic Association president Kevin Batdorf, previous candidate Paul Congemi, City Council member Brandi Gabbard, former St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Chief Jim Large and former St. Petersburg NAACP branch president Maria Scruggs, Florida Politics said.

Patch has reached out to the City Clerk’s office for the election filings by all mayoral and city council candidates so far.

The primary election will take place Aug. 18. If no candidate takes a majority, the top two vote-getters will go head-to-head in a Nov. 3 runoff.

A March poll of 538 city residents showed Crist holding a slight lead over his opponents with 22.6 percent of the vote. Welch trailed him with 18.9 percent of the vote, followed by Gabbard (5.9 percent), Scruggs (4.8 percent), Large (3.8 percent) and Batdorf (2.2 percent).

About 41.8 percent of those who responded to the poll were undecided.