Charlie Crist is running for office, again.
The former Florida governor filed Monday to run for mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla. Crist posted a video of himself to the social platform X in which he holds paperwork and remarks, “Well it’s official. I’m now a candidate for mayor of St. Pete. God bless you all.”
Crist, 70, has been a longtime staple of Florida politics since he was first elected to the state Senate in 1992. He later served as the Sunshine State’s education commissioner and attorney general under former Gov. Jeb Bush (R), before succeeding Bush as governor in 2007.
Then a Republican, Crist elected not to run for a second term in 2010 and instead ran for the GOP nomination for Senate.
He lost the Republican primary to Marco Rubio, who is now the secretary of State. In the general election, Christ’s independent campaign came up short, as Rubio defeated him by more than 19 percentage points.
Crist then switched to the Democratic Party in 2012 and ran unsuccessfully against his successor in the governor’s mansion, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), in 2014. He later represented Florida’s 13th Congressional District from 2017-22, a tenure that ended amid his third gubernatorial campaign.
While Crist won the Democratic nomination that year, he lost to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) by nearly 20 percentage points.
Former President Biden then nominated Crist in 2023 to the role of U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency focused on global air transportation.
Now, he is running for mayor in his hometown, challenging incumbent Mayor Ken Welch (D). In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times on Monday, Crist said his top issue is affordability and criticized Welch — despite the two endorsing each other in the past.
“I still consider [Welch] a friend,” Crist told the paper. “I did vote for him, I did campaign for him, but I am disappointed, like I feel a lot of citizens in St. Petersburg are.”
Crist and Welch are two of seven candidates in the technically nonpartisan race, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The primary election is set for Aug. 18, with the top two candidates advancing to the Nov. 3 general election if no one captures a simple majority.
