Three of St. Petersburg's four living former mayors have thrown their support behind Charlie Crist in his bid to unseat incumbent Mayor Ken Welch, a striking show of political unity two days after Crist topped a six-candidate primary field. Bob Ulrich, Bill Foster and Rick Baker have all endorsed Crist, leaving only Democrat Rick Kriseman, who led the city from 2014 to 2022, on the sidelines.
The endorsements, first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, land just two days after Crist led the field with 35.2% of the vote in Tuesday's nonpartisan primary, with Welch finishing second at 20.7%, according to WUSF. Since neither candidate cleared 50%, the two now head to a November 3 general election runoff. Crist is a former Florida governor and U.S. representative who, like Welch, is a Democrat who switched parties from the GOP, and St. Petersburg's mayoral race is legally nonpartisan under the city charter.
Ulrich, Foster and Baker are all Republicans, making their unified backing of a Democratic challenger a notable break from party lines in a race where such labels officially don't exist. Baker, who served as mayor from 2001 to 2010, was the first of the trio to endorse Crist, doing so in July. At the time, per the same Florida Politics account, Baker said he wanted to restore nonpartisan municipal governance and pointed to a local report alleging Welch swiped into City Hall on only 34% of workdays during his first year in office.
A Reversal From Foster's 2021 Support
Foster's endorsement carries its own history. He backed Welch during the 2021 campaign that saw Welch defeat Republican candidate Robert Blackmon, according to Florida Politics coverage from that race. Foster's decision to instead support Crist this cycle marks a clear shift away from Welch's political coalition, one of several defections among past allies as the incumbent heads into the runoff.
Only Kriseman, the most recent Democrat to hold the office before Welch, has stayed out of the fray. The city's fourth living former mayor slot would have belonged to David Fischer, St. Petersburg's first “strong mayor” from 1991 to 2001, but Fischer died in October 2025 at age 92, according to Florida Politics.
Money and Precincts Tell a Similar Story
The endorsements arrive amid a wide financial gap between the two campaigns. Crist and his political committee, St. Pete Shines, surpassed $2 million in total fundraising heading into the primary, more than four times Welch's roughly $493,000, Florida Politics reported. That included nearly $500,000 spent on voter outreach in the campaign's final weeks alone.
Primary results suggest the incumbent's troubles extend well beyond fundraising. A precinct-level analysis found Crist placed first or second across all 84 of St. Petersburg's voting precincts, while Welch finished third or lower in more than 70% of them, per the Tampa Bay Times' own reporting. That's a steep fall for a mayor who won his 2021 general election by 20 percentage points.
Debate Over Utility Money and City Issues
Crist's fundraising has drawn its own scrutiny. As St. Petersburg weighs creating a city-run municipal power utility, reports examined by Axios showed Crist has accepted donations from lobbyists linked to investor-owned utility companies such as Duke Energy, a tension that could sharpen as the city's franchise agreement with Duke comes up for potential reconsideration.
The broader campaign has also been shaped by voter frustration over city governance. Challengers hammered Welch throughout the primary season over the city's handling of storm recovery from recent hurricanes, water billing system errors, and the collapse of the Tampa Bay Rays' roughly $1.3 billion redevelopment deal at the Historic Gas Plant site, according to Florida Politics. Crist has also proposed cutting the city's operating millage rate by 0.40 mills in his first budget, a move his campaign says would deliver an estimated $14.8 million in annual tax relief in a city with the highest property tax rate among major Pinellas County municipalities.
Hoodline has tracked Crist's early fundraising surge since the spring, when his committee's cash advantage first became apparent well before he formally entered the race. With the November runoff now set, the question for Welch is whether he can rebuild support among the 44% of primary voters who backed one of the four eliminated candidates, while Crist works to keep his newly consolidated coalition of past mayors and big-money donors intact.
