Last night we had several primaries and municipal elections across the country, and the biggest was Jacksonville, Florida's mayoral race, pitting Republican Daniel Davis against Democratic candidate Donna Deegan. Jacksonville has long been the harbinger of Florida's red shift, it was the largest Republican-led city in the nation going into last night with two-term GOP Mayor Lenny Curry at the helm.
Democrat Donna Deegan will serve as the first female mayor of Jacksonville.
After months of hard campaigning and millions of dollars spent between both sides, Deegan won the highly contested election against Republican Daniel Davis with nearly 52% of the vote.
“We made history tonight,” Deegan told supporters at what became her election night celebration in Downtown Jacksonville. “It’s a brand new day in Jacksonville.”
Turnout ended at 33%, which was higher than primary turnout of just over 25%. Democrats finished early voting with over a 4-point lead – leaving the race open for either candidate on Tuesday.
Republicans closed the gap quickly at 12:10 Tuesday afternoon, but Deegan said she knew there would be a large amount of crossover voting from Republicans and Independent voters.
“When we were out the last several weeks, I mean, I can’t tell you how many people from across the political spectrum reached out to me and said ‘We want you to know, I’ve never voted for a Democrat before. I’m going to vote for you,’” Deegan said.
The win is the first for Democrats after Republican Lenny Curry’s win against Democratic Mayor Alvin Brown in 2015. Brown had a high approval rating among voters but lost to Curry by less than a 3-point margin.
Curry won re-election in 2019 and could not run again because of term limits. He became one of Davis’ Florida republican endorsements, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott and Rep. John Rutherford.
Davis’ high-profile campaign, fueled with more money than any campaign for local office in Jacksonville history, brought criticism and praise from Republicans.
Deegan received support from Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried but relied primarily on local bipartisan endorsements, including current Republican council members Matt Carlucci and Randy DeFoor and local activists and pastors.
Davis told his supporters the result wasn’t what he had been expecting 24 hours ago, but he pledged to help Deegan and urged his supporters to also come together to back her. He also turned during the concession speech to thank his wife Rebekah for her support during the grueling campaign.
All politics are local, as they say. But you have to admit Ron DeSantis and the GOP had this state locked up just six months ago. Now, Jacksonville is the largest crack in that lock. And just as we've seen before, Democrats have outperformed in special elections in response to GOP extremism as they have since the Dobbs decision.
That's some good news, at least.
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