St. Johns County's entryway on State Road A1A. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 20, 2024 at 10:29 pm
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Two sitting members of the St. Johns County Commission will lose their seats to political newcomers who are promising to slow down the pace of the county’s growth.
Clay Murphy unseated incumbent Roy Alaimo by a 6% margin, and Ann Taylor narrowly outpaced incumbent County Commissioner Henry Dean by just 2% — roughly 800 votes.
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Taylor ran a joint campaign with District 1 candidate Ann-Marie Evans, who lost by a mere 2% of the 2,000 votes cast to incumbent Christian Whitehurst.
Speaking with Jacksonville Today on election night, Taylor was overjoyed with her and Murphy’s advancing to the general election, though she was disappointed Evans won’t be joining them on the dais.
“I think it sends a really strong message that people are not happy with what the incumbents are doing,” Taylor tells Jacksonville Today. “They’re not happy with the direction the county is going.”
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Her win, she says, came despite big roadblocks, like a fake Republican Party voter guide distributed this month and former President Donald Trump’s endorsing all three incumbents on social media.
Incumbents Alaimo, Whitehurst and Dean far outraised their opponents on the campaign trail, some by nearly 10 times as much.
Murphy told Jacksonville Today he believes people have noticed that the number of homes has outpaced the quality of the county’s infrastructure. He says his victory is a clear sign of that, and made note of the fact that his opponent collected more in donations from developers and people connected to the real estate world.
“This is a resounding message to people who tend to put profits before our quality of life,” Murphy tells Jacksonville Today.
Jacksonville Today was unable to reach Whitehurst for comment on election night.
While a formal decision won’t be made until November, each candidate who won tonight will face either a no-party-affiliated candidate or a write-in candidate who won’t even appear on the ballot in that election.
Turnout is expected to be higher in the November general election after St. Johns County saw just 25% of its 222,529 voters cast ballots in the August elections.
And while the vast majority of ballots were cast for candidates whose signs are common sights around the county, candidates who have done no campaigning and have connections to one another still received thousands of votes.
A handful of other St. Johns County races are nearly or fully decided after the primary election, too.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick is almost guaranteed to get another term. After a decisive victory in the primary he will go up against write-in candidate Terri Schurman in November.
Clerk of Court Brandon Patty will remain in his seat, too, having beaten challenger Denver Cook. Patty, a U.S. Navy Reservist, is currently on deployment in the Middle East.
Voters also delivered a victory to incumbent St. Johns County School Board District 2 member Anthony E. Coleman Sr., with a 7% win margin over his opponent, Frank Cummings.
With four candidates in the District 5 School Board race, though, the two highest scoring candidates, Republican Party-endorsed Linda Thomson and St. Augustine teacher Bethany Hilbert, will face off in the general election.
