This week, Democrat Donna Deegan won the race for mayor of Jacksonville, Florida against Republican Daniel Davis who was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Deegan, a former television news anchor and founder of a charity for victims of breast cancer managed to defeat Davis by winning 52 percent of the vote. This is the first time that Jacksonville is going to have a Democrat mayor since 2015, and only the third time in three decades. The only other two Democrat mayors in Jacksonville had been Alvin Brown and Ed Austin, who switched parties during his time in office.
In a statement released after his victory, Deegan stated that this race marked a “new day” where the people were choosing “unity over division.”
Davis, the chief executive of the local chamber of commerce, JAX Chamber, had fundraised four times the amount that Deegan had and was backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Despite this, he was unable to secure a victory on election day.
On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump slammed DeSantis who is widely expected to join the 2024 presidential race against Trump, following Davis’ loss stating that the Trump-endorsed candidate in Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, had managed to win the GOP nomination for the state’s gubernatorial election. Trump in his statement also pointed out that the DeSantis’ endorsed candidate in the Kentucky race came in third place, while DeSantis managed to lose in Jacksonville the previous night.
Trump further alleged that Davis would have won the race if he had reached out and received Trump’s endorsement instead. Finally, he concluded that this was a big loss for the GOP.
