Jacksonville, Florida was the biggest city in the US with a Republican mayor until Tuesday night when Donna Deegan became the second Democrat in thirty years to be elected mayor.
Jacksonville is the 12th largest city in the United States, and until tonight had only had one Democratic mayor in the past three decades.
Former TV anchor Donna Deegan beat JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis in a stunning upset for Jacksonville mayor, becoming the first woman ever and only the second Democrat to win a mayor’s race here in three decades despite Davis outraising her four-to-one.
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Davis, a former City Council member and state representative, had been preparing for this mayoral race for the last eight years, when fellow Republican Lenny Curry was elected mayor. He mostly relied on his fundraising prowess to reach voters through mailers, text messages and advertisements. He raised a record-breaking $8.4 million by the end of April compared to Deegan’s $2.1 million.
Davis was endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, but his endorsement did not help Republicans avoid a historic defeat.
The 2023 election results that are trickling in appear to be holding the similiar pattern of the last several election cycles. Democrats have the energy and momentum, and the more that Donald Trump reemerges to be the face of the Republican Party, the more races Republicans lose.
If Republicans had won a mayor’s race in Phoenix, New York, Chicago, or Houston, the national media would be all over the story as Republican momentum and trouble ahead for President Biden in 2024, but Democrats are winning elections across the country that they haven’t won in decades, and there is nothing, but silence from the corporate media.
Whether it is Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis there is no evidence of a popular resurgance among Republicans.
It is just one off off year election, but if anything, Democrats still look like the stronger and better organized party.