JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — Duval County has gone blue again as Democrat Donna Deegan has defeated Republican Daniel Davis in the runoff election for Jacksonville Mayor.
Deegan claimed 52 percent of the more than 210,000 votes cast, according to Action News Jax. The Tributary’s Andrew Pantazi first reported the results.
Deegan is the first Democrat to claim the city’s top office since Alvin Brown defeated Mike Hogan in 2011 and will be the first woman to ever hold the position. She claimed 40 percent of the overall vote in a crowded field on March 21, but faced a much tougher task going head-to-head with Daniel Davis on Tuesday.
Deegan made her name as a broadcast journalist in Jacksonville and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2020. A three-time breast cancer survivor, she started her own non-profit in 2003 to fight breast cancer, The DONNA Foundation. The Foundation’s national marathon event boasts “millions in economic impact to Jacksonville.”
Deegan earned endorsements from Republican city council members Randy DeFoor and Matt Carlucci.
Davis has served as President and CEO of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce since 2013. Prior to that he was the executive director of the Northeast Florida Builders Association. Davis also served on the Jacksonville City Council, including as Council President in 2007, and spent four years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives.
Under Jacksonville strong-mayor form of government, Deegan will serve as the city's chief executive and administrative officer for at least the next four years. She will be proposing budgets, appointing city departments heads and wielding veto power over all resolutions and ordinances passed by the Jacksonville City Council.
