Florida Democrats flip the Jacksonville mayor’s office in a major upset

Wash Post:
Someone made an interesting point: Deegan is a Jacksonville native who was on the air for 30 years. A breast cancer survivor who formed an organization which raised and distributed millions for cancer victims and families. People knew her. Davis' attempts to paint her as an extremist didn't work.
Actually, it's disappointing that she only won by four points.

Mayoral losses deal blow to GOP in conservative strongholds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/17/gop-mayor-election-losses/

 

She may do a fine job. Prominent Republicans supported her.

 

In a blood red Republican stronghold a 4% victory is a landslide win. The lesson here is candidates need to move to the center given the growing number of independents.

 

Jacksonville isn't blood red. Trump won by 1% in 2016. Biden won by 4% in 2020. While Jax is more red than blue in local elections, it's pretty well purple.

 

Yeah, and we beat Georgia in 2020. That was our only win between 2017-2023. You can’t make a generalization by cherry-picking an outlier.

 

I agree, so thanks for clarifying. Just a bad candidate for the Republicans. Also, I believe a few wanted the power brokers knocked down a peg or two, they thought they ran the place.

 

It doesn’t need to be blood red for it to be an upset. It also doesn’t “have” to be tied historically, though it is sometimes appropriate. UF vs FSU is a good example. Sometimes one team is favored just based off of that particular year. Sometimes one team is favored because they have won several in a row. The point is, sometimes one team is favored over the other and a loss constitutes an upset.

 

That depends on who’s voting and who’s staying home. Biden won by four but DeSantis won by 19 points. So in Duval County Democrats are more likely to sit out an election than republicans. Call it purple if you wish, but in a county that more often than not votes red I’m skeptical.

 

I don't think it was an upset at all. Surprising, but not an upset. It was basically a toss up

 

Run Charlie Crist, expect these results. This was also before Ron decided he was the savior of all thing culture wars. No way his popularity has risen since then.

I said it was more purple than blood red. Its definitely more red than blue.

 

You think the Democrats were favored from the outset? Keep in mind, you can’t look at the polling midway through the election and say it was a toss up. Just like you can’t bet in a game and change your pick at halftime. We’re talking about before it started what everyone thought would happen.

 

The Davis vs Deegan race was within the margin of error on pretty much every poll I saw recently. Last I remember was she had a 1 point lead. I don't know about some of the down ballot stuff.

If you had asked me last year I would have said she had no chance, which is why it was surprising she won, overall, but not surprising she won on election night. If that makes sense

 

I edited my post to be more specific. I don’t think it’s fair for you to say it wasn’t an upset based upon what happened late in the process. You have to go based off the initial assumption, which you stated was “no chance”.

It was an upset.

 

Yeah. Dems definitely weren't favored from the outset.

 

In other news, Panama City flipped to a Republican mayor. Not entirely sure but I believe this will be the first Republican to hold that office in my lifetime. It's really a shame. Sounded like Greg Brudnicki was doing a great job.

 

I've met him, and he comes across as just a sleazy mouthpiece for whatever corporate agenda would enrich him best.

 

Yeah, I said it upthread somewhere. I met him 1 on 1 for a brief exchange and he came across as quite phony.