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.
Deegan, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise to be a changemaker, railing against the political consultant class that surrounded both Davis and current Mayor Lenny Curry.
The two emerged from a field of eight candidates who competed in the March jungle primary.
“Love won today,” Deegan told a crowd at her watch party Tuesday night. She will take office in July.
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.
Deegan is a former First Coast News anchor and the founder of the DONNA Foundation, a nonprofit funding breast cancer research and supporting families dealing with breast cancer. She becomes the first woman to make it to a mayoral runoff in Jacksonville history.
Jacksonville is the most populous city in the country with a Republican mayor, and under the city’s consolidated government, Jacksonville’s mayor has extraordinary power that surpasses many other cities’ mayors.
Davis’ campaign most prominently featured Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, with Davis vowing to increase the number of police officers while cutting city budgets.
One of the most important tasks for a new mayor is appointing a general counsel who can issue binding opinions over many levels of government, including the Duval County school district.
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This story was originally published by The Tributary