Webmail vox6/5/2023 ![]() Deegan expanded on existing awareness by mounting a strong ground game, with a robust door-knocking campaign and town halls, and she participated in a public debate, which Davis opted to skip. Deegan didn’t just rely on that, however, University of Northern Florida political scientist Georgette Dumont told Vox. The name recognition meant Deegan didn’t have to spend time or money introducing herself to voters. “There’s residual trust in who she is as a human.” “She’s lived this very public life that’s allowed her to build a very resilient and, in some ways, nonpartisan brand,” he told Vox. The ties she’s established over time were invaluable, said Schale. We’ve lived a shared life in Jacksonville,” Deegan said in an MSNBC interview. Deegan pursued this work after getting diagnosed with breast cancer three times herself. In addition to being a recognizable news anchor for decades, Deegan was well known in Jacksonville for having started a foundation to help underserved women fighting breast cancer and holding popular events and runs in the city. ![]() Perhaps the biggest takeaway for Democrats hoping to make gains in Florida in 2024 is the importance of running a candidate with strong connections to the community. “I told you it felt like where we were, that we were getting a lot of crossovers, that we were getting a lot of folks who just wanted desperately that change in Jacksonville.” The factors behind Deegan’s win “As much as I wanted to win this race for the people of Jacksonville, I wanted love to win,” Deegan said in her victory speech on Tuesday. Even as Deegan sought to be more inclusive in her messaging, Davis tacked sharper to the right in his campaign, a move that may have hurt him. Some of the top issues she has said she would focus on as mayor include addressing aging infrastructure, improving the city’s health outcomes, and boosting support for small businesses. Deegan also spoke about changing the culture of city government and making it more transparent. the outgoing administration also had some issues and you saw a lot of dissatisfaction with the direction of the city and a real desire for change.”ĭeegan ran a broadly positive campaign, with a focus on bringing people of different parties together and making Jacksonville government more inclusive and representative of the city’s population. I’ve known who Donna Deegan was since I was 11 years old. If you grew up in Jacksonville, you grew up with Donna Deegan. “She had two things going for her,” Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale told Vox. She was also able to capitalize on a voter base disappointed with current Republican leadership as crime in the city has stayed high, and as a recent bid to privatize Jacksonville’s public utility has been mired in scandal. ![]() ![]() A nightly regional news anchor for 25 years who went on to have a public fight with breast cancer, Deegan had deep ties to the Jacksonville area and strong voter recognition. In 2016, former President Donald Trump won the area, and in 2020, President Joe Biden did.ĭeegan was also uniquely bolstered by the strength of her candidacy and an inclusive message about change that brought in Democrats, independents, and a decent number of crossover Republicans. Jacksonville has elected mayors of both parties in the last two decades, while Duval County’s supported both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in recent years. And though Jacksonville is part of Duval County, Florida, which is historically Republican, the area is considered more of a swing district than other parts of the state. She won fairly narrowly, bringing in 52 percent of the vote to Republican Chamber of Commerce leader Daniel Davis’s 48 percent. The win, driven by former news anchor Donna Deegan, was widely seen as a major upset for the GOP, which increased its dominance in the state during the 2022 midterm elections.ĭeegan’s win is a significant victory for Democrats, but may not be a sign of a sea change in Florida politics. This week, Democrats got a rare bit of good news in Florida: For the first time in years, they flipped the mayoral seat in Jacksonville, the most populous Republican-led city in the country. ![]()
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