Florida Democrat Crist Resigns House Seat as DeSantis Governor Challenge Heats Up

(Bloomberg) -- Democrat Charlie Crist said he is resigning Wednesday from his US House seat as he campaigns to reclaim the Florida governorship from Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis in the November elections.

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Crist, whose decision shrinks Democrats’ already slim House majority, had previously announced he wouldn’t seek another House term amid his challenge to DeSantis, who is running for a second term and is widely considered a top GOP presidential candidate for 2024.

“I hereby resign my office as the Representative for Florida’s 13th Congressional District effective today,” Crist wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a letter dated Wednesday.

Crist, a former Republican, served as Florida governor from 2007 to 2011. He registered as a Democrat in 2012 and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2014. He won his Gulf Cost-area House seat in 2016.

Democrat Eric Lynn, a former Defense Department official during the Obama administration, was unopposed in last week’s primary to replace Crist in Florida’s 13th District, which includes Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

Air Force veteran Anna Paulina Luna won the GOP nomination for the district, which former President Donald Trump carried by 7 points and has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. The non-partisan Cook Political Report has rated the seat as likely switching to Republican in this fall’s elections.

But Lynn entered the general election with a war chest twice Luna’s size, according to the campaigns’ most recent Federal Election Commission filings.

Democrats are defending narrow majorities in both congressional chambers and could lose unified control of Congress after the November elections. DeSantis also resigned his House seat in 2018 during his successful campaign for governor against Democrat Andrew Gillum.

Democrats are slated to swear in Democrat Pat Ryan of New York, who won a special election, when the House reconvenes next month.

(Updates attribution in lede, new third paragraph)

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