In a decisive victory, Reginald Blount beat opponent Hank Rogers by more than 10% in the race to represent Jacksonville’s Westside on the Duval County School Board.

Blount, a U.S. Army veteran, will replace Warren Jones, who has served two four-year terms as District 5’s representative and is now term-limited. Jones has a long history of public service that also includes nearly 30 years spent on the Jacksonville City Council.

Jones’ exit, along with that of Lori Hershey in District 7 and Kelly Coker in District 1, set the board up for an ideological shift. Blount’s victory ensures it.

Gov. Ron DeSantis openly worked to build conservative majorities on Florida’s school boards this election cycle, first making a list of sitting members he wanted to oust and following it up with a slate of endorsements over the summer. Two Duval board members, Coker and Cindy Pearson, were on his target list. 

Pearson won her bid for reelection, and Coker opted not to run for a second term. A candidate DeSantis endorsed, Tony Ricardo, won Coker’s seat. Melody Bolduc, who also ran with DeSantis’ endorsement, won Hershey’s seat.

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Though many of DeSantis’ preferred candidates lost their races in August around the state, his endorsements fared OK in Jacksonville.

Blount, Ricardo and Bolduc join April Carney and Charlotte Joyce to give the board a solid conservative majority of members who have the support of parental-rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty.

Blount is the last new member set to join the Duval School Board this month because his election required a November run-off. 

Three candidates originally ran for the District 5 seat — Blount, Rogers and Nahshon Nicks, who received about 20% of the vote in the primary. Blount and Rogers split the remaining 80% evenly, and because no candidate received more than 50%, they continued to a run-off. 

DeSantis did not endorse a candidate in the District 5 race, but Blount did run with the support of Moms for Liberty.

Blount, 62, focused his campaign on conservative talking points that emphasize cultural issues. He promised to “help remove inappropriate material that is harmful to your children” and said he would “minimize controversial social programs while enhancing academic and vocational opportunities.”

Duval Schools has spent most of the year talking about the need to close schools — and the conversation collided with the election on Monday night.

At his final school board meeting the day before the election, Jones voted in support of a series of school closures — many of which would affect District 5, which has already seen seven schools close during Jones’ tenure on the board.

Last week, Jacksonville Today asked both Blount and Rogers their thoughts on the pending closures. Blount said he was “extremely concerned about the closings,” but did not comment further because the School Board had not yet voted on the closures.

Rogers raised more money and spent more money than Blount — but both candidates raised more than $50,000. In total, the three District 5 candidates raised more than $160,000. After his defeat, Nicks’ company donated to Blount’s campaign.