Perennial candidate Paul Congemi joins St. Pete Mayor’s race

Paul Congemi, whose only claim to fame in the city is telling a former mayoral candidate to “go back to Africa,” is running for the job again, for the fifth time.

Congemi filed for the race by submitting a form with poor penmanship and riddled with errors.

Congemi wrote his name in the space where candidates are supposed to indicate their party affiliation if seeking partisan office. The Mayor’s race is not partisan.

He also wrote his name in the field reserved for the name of the bank his campaign would use for contributions and expenditures, and his personal address in the space where the bank’s address is supposed to go. His name is crossed out, with Hancock Whitney added above the mistake, though it appears he misspelled Hancock as “Hancoch.”

Additionally, Congemi wrote “St. Petersburg” in the field where he was supposed to date the form. Again, the mistake is stricken through, with the date then added instead.

Congemi briefly ran for Mayor in 2021, the most recent mayoral election, but didn’t qualify for the race. Before that, he ran unsuccessfully in 2017, 2013 and 2009.

Congemi received less than one half of 1% of the overall vote in the 2017 Primary. Just 188 voters cast a ballot for him. He performed equally as poorly in the two preceding mayoral elections.

Congemi made national news after a viral rant from his losing 2017 bid in which he told fellow candidate Jesse Nevel, a White candidate who ran on the issue of reparations for the African American community, to “go back to Africa.”

During a debate, Congemi responded to Nevel’s claims that reparations would mend problems within the African American community with the loaded statement and claimed that “your reparations came in the form of a man named Barack Obama.”

The “go back to Africa” rant wasn’t the first time Congemi found himself the subject of less than flattering headlines.

In 2009, he was banned from a St. Pete KFC after he got into a shouting match with employees because his food was taking too long. He told police after that altercation not to touch him because he was “running for Mayor,” and that once he got elected he would fire them. Congemi later claimed that would not be an abuse of power, but “justice.”

In 2017, Congemi was charged with elder abuse after his then 87-year old mother was admitted to intensive care for bed sores so severe that a doctor could see her bones. Congemi claimed his mother only went a day and a half without home health care. The charges against him were ultimately dropped.

Don’t expect much from Congemi during the 2026 election cycle. While he frequently participated in campaign forums to which he was invited, Congemi did little else to further his 2017 campaign, and he didn’t raise a single dime.

Congemi is the third candidate to file for Mayor this year, joining fellow frequent flier Maria Scruggs and incumbent Mayor Ken Welch. Former Gov. Charlie Crist is widely expected to join the race, while Shore Acres Neighborhood Association President Kevin Batdorf and St. Pete City Council candidate Brandi Gabbard have also said they intend to run.