Former St. Petersburg City Council member Rick Kriseman says he is ready for the August primary battle against Mayor Bill Foster.
He served with Foster on the Council and spent six years in the Florida Legislature representing the city.
"I felt like this was an opportunity for me to come back home and have a positive impact on the community," said Kriseman.
He says he's ready to take the state's fourth largest city into a new direction, and that includes concerns over the Tampa Bay Rays.
"We need to do everything that we can to try to keep them in this community. However, as the ultimate steward of the taxpayer dollars and representative of our tax dollars, I also need to look at from the perspective if after everything that we try and do to keep them here and increase attendance we're not successful- how do we best protect the taxpayers?"
He has support from well-known Republicans and Democrats.
Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala says she supports him.
"Rick stands up for what he believes in. He's a bold leader." she said.
"The decisions that we make at the local level are non-partisan. It's about doing what's right for the community and that's what I've seen in Rick," she added.
Former Republican State Senator Paula Dockery, Alex Sink and Largo Mayor Pat Gerard also support him.
"They recognize that regardless of your party, policy is what's important and they know that's the way I feel," he said.
St.PetePolls.org shows, in a hypothetical race, Foster would get 29 percent of the vote and Kriseman would receive 16 percent.
Kriseman says that shows he must gather more name recognition.
"We recognize that that's something that we'll work on and I have no concerns about come August when people go vote."
Paul Congemi is also running in the primary. The 52-year-old former builder also advocates for the homeless.