Charlie Crist served in the Florida Senate from 1993 to 1999, vacating his seat to run unsuccessfully against incumbent Bob Graham for the US Senate in 1998.
87 Facts About Charlie Crist
2.
Charlie Crist won a 2000 special election to serve as Florida Education Commissioner from 2001 to 2003 and a 2002 election to serve as Florida Attorney General from 2003 to 2007.
3.
Charlie Crist was elected Governor of Florida in 2006 after winning against Democrat Jim Davis.
4.
Charlie Crist initially led in polls in the race for the Republican nomination, but was later overtaken by Marco Rubio.
5.
On December 7,2012, Charlie Crist joined the Democratic Party, having endorsed President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012.
6.
Charlie Crist was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election, resigning from the House in August 2022 to focus on his campaign.
7.
Charlie Crist was defeated in a landslide by incumbent governor Ron DeSantis.
8.
Charlie Crist was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on July 24,1956, to Charles Joseph Charlie Crist, an American physician of Greek Cypriot and Lebanese descent, and Nancy, of Scots-Irish, Swiss, and Welsh descent.
9.
Charlie Crist is the second of four children and has three sisters: Margaret Crist Wood, Elizabeth Crist Hyden, and Catherine Crist Kennedy.
10.
Charlie Crist earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State, where he was elected vice president of the student body and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
11.
Charlie Crist received his JD from Samford University Cumberland School of Law.
12.
In 1992, Charlie Crist was elected to a two-year term to the Florida Senate from the 20th district, which encompassed parts of St Petersburg and South Tampa.
13.
Charlie Crist was able to unseat Gordon Davis following the 1992 decennial redistricting process, which significantly reconfigured the districts in the Tampa Bay area.
14.
Charlie Crist supported teacher salary increases, charter schools, and a specialty license plate for Everglades conservation.
15.
Charlie Crist gained recognition in 1998 as the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic US Senator Bob Graham.
16.
Charlie Crist campaigned conservatively on taxation, crime, and the ongoing Lewinsky scandal, but agreed with Graham on issues such as healthcare and statehood for Puerto Rico.
17.
Charlie Crist campaigned on being younger, more energetic, and more able to address Floridians' needs.
18.
Charlie Crist lost to Graham by 26 percentage points, but gained significant name recognition, and was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in 1999 upon the conclusion of his Senate service.
19.
Charlie Crist served until 2000, when he ran for Florida Education Commissioner in a November special election created by the resignation of incumbent Commissioner Tom Gallagher.
20.
Charlie Crist won by over 500,000 votes and assumed the office in January 2001.
21.
Charlie Crist left the office after he was elected attorney general in 2002.
22.
Charlie Crist's candidacy was supported by the host of America's Most Wanted, John Walsh.
23.
Civil rights and consumer groups praised Charlie Crist for expanding the attorney general's powers during his time in office.
24.
Charlie Crist worked to combat email spam, freeze utility rates, end telecom deception, and protect the environment.
25.
Nonetheless, Charlie Crist remained widely popular with Floridians during his term, and an April 2009 poll showed him with a 68 percent approval rating among Republicans and independents and a 66 percent approval rating among Democrats.
26.
Charlie Crist drew criticism from the right for supporting the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan.
27.
Shortly thereafter, Charlie Crist announced that he had moderated his views against LGBT adoption and marriage.
28.
In February 2006, Charlie Crist attended a fundraiser at Mar-A-Lago, hosted by Donald Trump, with guests paying $500 to attend.
29.
Charlie Crist returned $1,000 in campaign contributions to one of those guests as a result.
30.
In 2009, Charlie Crist saw the man he had chosen as Florida GOP finance chairman, his former fraternity brother, oil magnate Harry Sargeant III, forced to step down.
31.
The day before the general election, Charlie Crist held a campaign event with McCain in Jacksonville.
32.
In May 2007, Charlie Crist signed legislation moving the date of Florida's presidential primary to January 29,2008, contrary to national political party rules.
33.
Charlie Crist joined Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm in asking that their states' delegates be seated.
34.
On January 26,2008, Charlie Crist endorsed McCain in the Republican primary.
35.
On October 28,2008, Charlie Crist extended early voting hours of operation and declared that a "state of emergency exists", due to record voter turnout and resultant hours-long waits at locations throughout the state.
36.
Charlie Crist held a joint interview with Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina in which they discussed the split in the Republican Party over where to direct the party's efforts to gain more voters.
37.
On May 12,2009, Charlie Crist announced that he would not run for reelection as governor in 2010, making him the first Florida governor not to run for reelection since 1964.
38.
Charlie Crist was initially the front-runner in the Republican primary, but later trailed Rubio in polls.
39.
Charlie Crist announced his intent to run as an unaffiliated candidate in the election, while at the same time, according to a press release from his campaign, he remained a registered Republican.
40.
Charlie Crist officially changed his registration status to "non party affiliated" on May 13,2010.
41.
Charlie Crist did not return campaign contributions made while he was a Republican.
42.
In March 2015, Charlie Crist said he would not seek the nomination.
43.
Charlie Crist worked primarily in the firm's class-action sector as a complex-litigation attorney, serving as a "rainmaker" for the firm.
44.
In 2013, Charlie Crist performed paid consulting work for Coastal Construction, a Miami-based construction firm owned by Charlie Crist's longtime friend Tom Murphy, the father of former US Representative Patrick Murphy.
45.
Charlie Crist has been a part-time guest lecturer at Stetson University College of Law, with the title of Distinguished Professorial Lecturer.
46.
On December 7,2012, Charlie Crist announced that he had joined the Democratic Party.
47.
In July 2013, Charlie Crist began writing a book, with Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, about his political transition.
48.
In May 2014, Charlie Crist told Fusion's Jorge Ramos that he had left the Republican Party because of its racial attitudes.
49.
On November 1,2013, Charlie Crist filed to run for governor as a Democrat.
50.
Charlie Crist won the Democratic nomination but was defeated in the general election by Republican incumbent Rick Scott.
51.
Charlie Crist holds the rare distinction of losing a statewide general election in Florida as a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent.
52.
On October 20,2015, Charlie Crist announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Florida's 13th congressional district, his home district, in the 2016 US House of Representatives elections.
53.
Charlie Crist had previously announced on Twitter that he would not run for political office in 2016.
54.
Republican incumbent David Jolly, who succeeded 43-year incumbent Bill Young in a 2014 special election, was vacating the seat to run for the same Senate seat for which Charlie Crist ran in 1998 and 2010.
55.
Charlie Crist was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, the New Democrat Coalition, the Climate Solutions Caucus and the US-Japan Caucus.
56.
On December 18,2019, Charlie Crist voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
57.
On January 13,2021, Charlie Crist voted in favor of the single article of impeachment against President Trump during the second impeachment of Donald Trump.
58.
On May 4,2021, Charlie Crist announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election against incumbent Ron DeSantis.
59.
Charlie Crist's running mate for lieutenant governor was union leader Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of the United Teachers of Dade.
60.
In 2006, while running for governor, Crist said he did not support overturning Roe v Wade and opposed a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion.
61.
In early 2010, Charlie Crist said he would "fight for pro-life legislative efforts" and described himself as "pro-life".
62.
In June 2010, after leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent, Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that would have required, at patient cost, an ultrasound in order to receive an abortion.
63.
In May 2014, Charlie Crist publicly supported lifting the United States embargo against Cuba, arguing it has not helped to change the Cuban government.
64.
Charlie Crist had supported the embargo earlier as both a Republican and independent.
65.
In 2019, Charlie Crist quietly visited Cuba to meet with Cuban officials, despite high bilateral tensions due to alleged Cuban support for the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
66.
In June 2008, Charlie Crist proposed that Florida buy 187,000 acres from the United States Sugar Corporation for $1.75 billion.
67.
In 2007, Charlie Crist signed executive orders to impose stricter air pollution standards in Florida, with an aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
68.
Charlie Crist supported President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a stimulus package in response to the Great Recession.
69.
In 2008, Charlie Crist signed a provision preventing employers from prohibiting employees from bringing firearms to the workplace, as long as the weapons are secure and the employees have a concealed carry license.
70.
In 2012, Charlie Crist announced that he supported reinstating the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, banning high-capacity magazines, and instating more extensive background checks.
71.
When he left office as governor in 2011, Charlie Crist had an A rating from the NRA.
72.
In June 2017, Charlie Crist was one of 24 House Democrats to vote for Kate's Law.
73.
In 2006, as a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions was headed to the ballot in Florida, Charlie Crist said that such an amendment was unnecessary because state law already barred same-sex marriages.
74.
Charlie Crist said in campaign materials at the time that he supported "traditional marriage".
75.
For some time Charlie Crist supported Florida's ban on same-sex adoption, which had been in place since 1977.
76.
Charlie Crist publicly expressed support for the ban beginning when he was attorney general in 2006.
77.
In 2008, Charlie Crist again announced his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment.
78.
In September 2010, Charlie Crist said that he had had an "appropriate evolution" on gay rights and was considering dropping the state's appeal of to block gay adoption.
79.
Days later, after an appeals court affirmed gay couples had a right to adopt, Charlie Crist hailed the ruling "a very good day for Florida" and "a great day for children" and announced that the state would no longer seek to enforce the ban.
80.
Charlie Crist said "fully legalizing marijuana" would bring about "true justice in our state and in our country" in announcing his candidacy for governor in 2021.
81.
Charlie Crist voted for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level and expunge cannabis convictions in 2020.
82.
Charlie Crist reiterated his support for it in October 2022.
83.
Charlie Crist supported increased regulation of the insurance industry, including property insurance rates and health insurance.
84.
The abortion hurdles bill Charlie Crist vetoed in June 2010 included some provisions "intended to thwart" the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care reform legislation championed by President Obama.
85.
Charlie Crist became engaged to Carole Rome on July 3,2008, after nine months of dating, and they married on December 12 of that year at the First Methodist Church of St Petersburg, of which Charlie Crist is a member.
86.
In February 2017, Charlie Crist announced that he had filed for divorce, and the divorce was completed that year.
87.
In 2022, while running for governor again, Charlie Crist said he was engaged to a woman he met in 2017, who is a mother of six children and a medical sonographer.