Donna Deegan, a Democratic former information anchor and charity founder, upset her better-funded Republican opponent Tuesday to change into the primary feminine mayor of Jacksonville, Florida’s largest metropolis, and the primary Democrat to carry the workplace since 2015. Jacksonville was additionally the most important U.S. metropolis with a Republican mayor, NBC Information reviews, a distinction that now falls to Fort Price, Texas. Deegan beat Daniel Davis, CEO of the native Chamber of Commerce and the favourite to win the race, 52% to 48%. Mayor Lenny Curry (R) couldn’t run once more as a consequence of time period limits.
“We made historical past tonight,” Deegan stated at her victory get together. “It is a model new day in Jacksonville.”
Davis spent more cash on his race than any candidate for native workplace in Jacksonville historical past, The Florida Occasions-Union reviews. He and his allies “hit Deegan over her participation in Black Lives Matter protests, and the native sheriff stated she would set up ‘radical insurance policies’ if elected,” Politico provides, however she referred to as these assaults smears and gained some endorsements from native GOP officers.
Davis, who conceded Tuesday night time, was endorsed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla), and native U.S. Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.). His loss was additionally defeat No. 2 for candidates endorsed by DeSantis, The New York Occasions notes. On Monday night time, the Florida governor had made a shock endorsement in Kentucky’s GOP gubernatorial main, backing former Trump administration U.N. ambassador Kelly Craft over state Lawyer Normal Daniel Cameron, the candidate of former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“Kelly shares the identical imaginative and prescient we do in Florida,” DeSantis stated in a robocall to GOP voters Monday night time. She got here in a distant third on Tuesday, 17% to Cameron’s 47%. “Let me simply say,” Cameron stated in his victory speech, “the Trump tradition of successful is alive and effectively in Kentucky!” That, the Occasions explains, was a dig at DeSantis, who has been making ready for a presidential run by urging Republicans to push previous their “tradition of dropping” from the Trump period.