Former Jacksonville City Council member Brenda Priestly Jackson challenged state Rep. Angie Nixon. D-Jacksonville, in the Democratic primary. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 20, 2024 at 9:23 pm
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Angie Nixon’s mammoth margin of victory over Democratic challenger Brenda Priestly Jackson in Florida House District 13 surprised even her.
According to unofficial results, Nixon earned more than 80% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary to advance to November’s election, where she faces Terrance Jordan, a write-in candidate who has not raised a dime in support of their campaign. Nixon will be a heavy favorite to return to the Legislature for a third term.
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“I’m just excited that the Democratic voters wanted to send me back to Tallahassee,” Nixon said. “They saw through all the Republican money that (Gov. Ron) DeSantis and (former Jacksonville Mayor) Lenny Curry supporters were putting behind my opponent. They wanted me to be their candidate.”
Priestly Jackson had won elected office thrice — twice to the Duval County School Board and once to the Jacksonville City Council — and sought to run a bipartisan campaign.
“The neighbors in the community, those who were allowed to vote, have spoken” Priestly Jackson said referencing the closed primary. Republicans could not vote in the race because a candidate had filed as a write-in.
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“I accept their decision,” Priestly Jackson said of voters. “I wish the neighbors in the community and Rep. Nixon the best.”
The all-Duval district spans Northwest Jacksonville and portions of the Westside between Chafee Road and 103rd Street. It contains some of the most underserved and under-resourced ZIP codes in Florida. Its electorate its 52.7% Democratic. Only 28,215 of its 110,349 registered voters are Republican.
“How can you marginalize (more than) 51,000 neighbors’ voices?” Priestly Jackson stated, arguing that the lack of Republicans and independents in the race was not in the best interest of the district. “Those who voted in this Democratic primary have decided Rep. Nixon’s brand of representation is what they want.”
Nixon, a longtime community organizer, sought a third term in the House. She has been a persistent critic of DeSantis’ policies on abortion access, affordable housing funding and gun accessibility.
Nixon frequently highlighted the problems facing her district in public appearances. However, the criticism of her two-term tenure was that she did not bring home enough funding for her district.
Priestly Jackson made prioritizing small businesses and nonprofits one of the top priorities of her campaign. She believed that the lack of proportional appropriations for the district hindered businesses and did not allow them to maintain the services required to address industry needs amid an economic climate upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(Voters wanted) someone to continue to lift up marginalized voices, someone who will fight for them — for lower property insurance, lower car insurance and ensure our public schools remain open,” Nixon said. “They wanted someone who will not write a blank check to let the governor do whatever he wants.”
Nixon and Priestly Jackson both graduated from traditional public high schools in the district — Nixon is a Paxon alumna while Priestly Jackson graduated from Ribault. Both view education as an equalizer, and both believe the Florida Legislature needs to protect traditional public schools by increasing funding and staunching the flow of dollars toward charter schools and through voucher programs.
Now that the campaign is over, neither is eager to reconcile with the other.
“I believe it was Republican leadership in Tallahassee and corporations meddling through financing a Democrat, and trying to make it seem like I wasn’t able to accomplish anything, that made it a contentious race,” Nixon said.
