ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist filed election paperwork to run for mayor of St. Petersburg, his hometown. The filing places Crist in a nonpartisan race that includes incumbent Mayor Ken Welch and approximately six other candidates.

"St. Petersburg is a very special place to me. It's home." Crist said.

Crist, 69, graduated from St. Petersburg High School and later represented the St. Petersburg area in the U.S. House of Representatives. The city sits across the bay from Tampa and has regularly elected Democrats to various offices.

Welch is seeking reelection. He is the first Black person to hold the St. Petersburg mayor's office. Crist endorsed Welch in Welch's earlier mayoral campaign.

The city continues to deal with high water bills. The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team has also created uncertainty in St. Petersburg.

Crist has moved across party lines over the course of his political career, registering at different times as a Republican, a Democrat and an independent. Earlier in his career, he served as a state senator, education commissioner and Florida's attorney general as a Republican. He was once known as "chain-gang Charlie" for having inmates clean highways.

Crist served as Republican governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate multiple times, including a 2010 campaign as an independent against Marco Rubio. In 2014, he challenged Republican Governor Rick Scott as a Democrat and was unsuccessful.

He went on to serve three terms as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, ending in 2022. While in Congress, he voted twice to impeach President Donald Trump during Trump's first term.

Crist ran against Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022 and lost, with DeSantis taking about 59% of the vote.