Crist announces new bid for Congress

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist is trying to make a comeback yet again.

On Tuesday, Crist announced he's running for a U.S. House seat representing his hometown of St. Petersburg. Crist is seeking the seat currently held by republican David Jolly, who is leaving the seat behind to run for U.S. Senate.

Crist lost a U.S. Senate race to Marco Rubio in 2010. In 2014 he lost the race for governor against Rick Scott.  As he rolled out his campaign for Congress, Crist said he's learned from those setbacks.

"I think you learn more from the losses than the victories, and what I have learned is you have to listen as hard as you can," said Crist. "I don't always get it right, but I always try to listen even when it's hard."

Crist said he's running for Congress because Washington is broken, and he can help fix it by listening to people.

"All they do is argue all day long. They can't seem to pick a House speaker right now. It is a dysfunctional body unfortunately and we need change," he said.

Crist pressed three issues at his first campaign event in St. Petersburg. He said he'll focus on improving education, protecting the environment, and social insurance reform.

"Why we don't have cost-of-living increases in social security is unbelievable to me, and why in Medicare we can't negotiate drug costs doesn't make any sense to me at all," Crist said.

As Democrat seeking a U.S. House seat in 2016, Charlie Crist has three things working in his favor:

1. He's running for an open seat in his home community.

2. He's running in a national election cycle that tends to be more favorable to Democrats (historically, Democratic turnout goes up when there's a presidential race on the ballot).

3. The revised political map will likely move many more Democrats into the Pinellas County U.S. House district.

Crist is running for a Pinellas County house seat before the boundaries are set in stone. He's assuming the new Pinellas district will include his home in St. Petersburg, based on a judge's recommendation. The Florida Supreme Court should approve the new districts early next month.

Crist has competition from Democrat Eric Lynn who is also running for the seat.