Charles Kennedy is a Jacksonville resident who says the conversation around parental rights in Florida activated his engagement in public policy. This year was the second time he campaigned in support of state Rep. Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville Beach. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 5, 2024 at 10:20 pm
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Ginger Soud admitted that she bit her nails in the days leading up to Tuesday’s general election.
The Republican state committeewoman need not have worried. Despite a lower than expected voter turnout in Duval County, Republicans decisively won local and statewide races.
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Statewide amendments also went the way of the Grand Old Party. Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana, earned only 55%, when it needed 60% to pass. Amendment 4, a ballot initiative that would have guaranteed abortion access to the point of viability, also failed. Amendment 4 earned 57% support when it needed a 60%.
Duval voters supported Amendment 3 with about 61%, but only 58% supported the abortion amendment.
As of 10 p.m., the Duval County Supervisor of Elections tabulated 71% voter turnout. But Republican turnout was higher than Democratic — 82% compared with 73%, according to data compiled by Fresh Take Florida, a journalism program at the University of Florida.
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“We’ve been working for years, relentlessly, going on six years, to grind down the Democrat Party voter registration lead,” said Duval County GOP chairman Dean Black. “You see the results of some of that effort tonight, and those efforts will resume.”
Black overwhelmingly won reelection to the Florida House of Representatives. He defeated Democratic challenger Gary McManus for House District 15 by 29 points.
Inside the Hyatt Regency in Downtown, at a Duval GOP celebration, the public address would interrupt the murmurs and conversation with the theme from Monday Night Football. It was an indicator that an announcement of another victory would soon be shared.
As Black asked the expectant crowd: Are you tired of winning yet?
Their response was decisive: No!
Voters in the counties that surround Duval overwhelmingly made their voices heard. Nassau County led the region with an 85% turnout. St. Johns was not too far behind with 84% percent turnout, while Clay County drew 81% percent of its electorate.
Harry Wilson was one of the people who made Tuesday’s turnout possible. Wilson spent Election Day shuttling people to the polls, including the Beaver Street Enterprise Center in Durkeeville.
Wilson was among an armada of nine vans, two busses and individual cars that transported people Tuesday.
“I feel like they need to vote. For the process that’s going on now, they just need to get out and vote,” he said. “Because, we are living in a real, real hard time right now. (We’re) trying to decide on who we want to be the next president of the United States and run the country like it’s supposed to be.”
Wilson said he prefers presidents who have a plan and articulate it to voters. That’s why he supported Kamala Harris, he said. However, he did not provide his personal analysis while providing transportation.
The African American Ministers Leadership Council banded together to provide the free rides to the polls. Members from more than a dozen churches transported hundreds of people during the early voting period. On Election Day, the dispatch center inside Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church in Durkeeville remained busy while the polls remained open.
Elder Lee Harris of Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church is a statewide leader of the leadership council. He has been a staunch advocate for voter information and voter participation.
From Duclay to Durkeeville, San Pablo and the Southside as well as places in between, Harris says the drivers were deployed throughout Duval.
Out at the beaches, electoral participation was primarily last-minute encouragement to support specific candidates. At both Jacksonville Beach City Hall as well as the Beaches Library in Neptune Beach, partisans held signs and waved at honking vehicles along 3rd Street.
Bonnie Moale held a sign in support of Jacksonville Beach City Council challengers: Georgette Dumont, Bruce Wouters, Duke Lewis and Jennifer Ashley. She says the economy was the factor in pledging her support to the quartet of local challengers.
“I want our council to listen to the people,” Moale said. “When we go to City Hall (the incumbents) are not listening to us.”
About 100 yards away, Lewis as well as incumbent council member Fernando Meza and incumbent Mayor Christine Hoffman stood at the corner of 1st Avenue and 3rd Street waving signs.
Lewis is a first-time candidate for public office. He ran this year because in 2022, all three Jacksonville Beach City council races featured a candidate who ran unopposed.
Lewis lost his race to Dan Janson by 27 points. Meza lost his bid for a third term to Wouters by six points. Hoffman was successful in her bid for a third mayoral term.
“I feel if people showed up at the voting box, they needed a name there,” Lewis says. “I used to think it was my civic duty to vote. This time, I thought it was my civic duty to run.”
