Perhaps it’s the Ron DeSantis national pretending 2024 campaign driven by a “book tour.” Perhaps it’s the international travel that distracts a sitting governor from supporting a Republican candidate in the largest geographic metropolitan area in the state. Whatever the reason, the Jacksonville Florida mayoral contest was won by a Democrat, Donna Deegan.
I have warned, against some of the most vitriolic pushback, that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is setting up the state of Florida for some major problems in the future. There are lots of granular points that I can reference, but the bigger picture they create is one that will be very damaging in the future. The class division in Florida, the distance between the haves and have-nots, is growing exponentially.
Lower and middle-income Floridians are being crushed as the ‘Instagram selfie-my-lunch’ crowd, the largest coalition of support for Ron DeSantis, ignores it.
Believe me on this, DeSantis Republicans representing the financially elite and being condescendingly dismissive of the non-elite, is not a path to future Republican electoral victory. From my perspective the backlash is visible. It only takes a few thousand voters staying home in protest to make a difference.
Those same enforcement police, newly empowered with tools against ANTIFA woke protests, will hold those same tools when it’s Joe the plumber protesting his economic status.
JACKSONVILLE – Democrat Donna Deegan won the Jacksonville mayor’s race Tuesday night, a shocking upset that hands Florida Democrats a major shot of energy less than six months after they were trounced in the 2022 midterms and considered left for dead by the national party.



