Mayor Donna Deegan speaks with City Council member Rory Diamond before signing his Heroes Act bill into law on March 29, 2024. | News4Jax
Published on June 3, 2025 at 5:03 am
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Mayor Donna Deegan and Sheriff T.K. Waters both received high marks in the latest poll from the University of North Florida.
The state attorney also got high approval, but the Jacksonville City Council earned a slightly negative opinion, the polls says.
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The poll, conducted from May 22 through 30 by the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF, included 742 registered Duval County voters. It sought opinions about local public officials as well as several issues affecting the community. The overall margin of error was +/- 4.4 percentage points.
Asked how the mayor is handling her job, 61% expressed approval, either strongly or somewhat, while 37% said they disapprove. The sheriff received 64% approval while 32% disapproved. State Attorney Melissa Nelson had a 61% approval rating, with 29% saying they disapproved.
Among elected officials, only the City Council had net negative approval, with 42% of those polled indicating they approve of the job lawmakers are doing and 53% expressing disapproval.
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“City Council is the notable exception to otherwise high approvals across the board,” said Michael Binder, faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab. “Maybe voters are tired of the petty partisan squabbling we’ve seen recently, or maybe some council members backed the wrong horse in the City Hall gun registry debacle.”
UNF political science professor Sean Freeder said: “Deegan’s approval ratings are high and consistent, still at 61% and down just 2% from about a year ago. This is fairly strong showing considering the ongoing anti-incumbent mood in the country, the significantly weaker approval of City Council, and Jacksonville’s low Democratic Party identification compared to other major cities nationwide.”
On issues:
HOUSING: Housing was identified as the most important problem facing Jacksonville, with 25% response. That was followed by crime at 12%, then education, transportation and infrastructure each with 9%. The economy and property taxes each received 8%.
“Voters are a lot more concerned over housing costs now than they were the last time we polled on Jacksonville’s most important problem, back in September of 2023,” Binder said. “Historically, crime has been far and away the top response. Now in a distant second place across party lines, priorities seem to have shifted to the housing issues we’re seeing all over the state.
Freeder said the shift toward economic concerns likely reflects not only state and local issues like homeowner’s insurance and housing supply, but also general national concerns about inflation and President Trump’s tariff policies.
CONCEALED WEAPONS: Seventy-six percent of the people polled said City Hall should be included among places where concealed weapons are prohibited. Currently, the law prohibits conceaped weapons in police stations, schools, courthouses, meetings of public bodies and other places, but weapons are allowed inside City Hall.
The question followed news last month that a gun registry was kept on armed visitors entering City Hall and the Yates Building in recent years. Then last week, a demonstrator was arrested at a City Council meeting with a knife.
“Support for banning concealed weapons from City Hall is high across party lines, with 83% of Democrats and 78% of independents, and even a sizable majority of Republicans (68%),” Binder said. “Although conservatives are generally more Second Amendment-oriented, this lines up with what we saw in our 2023 Florida Statewide survey, which had 62% of registered Republicans opposed to the permitless carry bill that ultimately passed that year.”
PROPERTY TAXES: Sixty percent expressed support, either strongly or somewhat, for eliminating property taxes in Florida, as Gov. Don DeSantis has proposed. Forty percent opposed the idea.
People in the survey were told that 42% of the revenue collected by Duval County last year came from property taxes.
“People really don’t like paying taxes, especially in Florida,” Binder stated. “It’s no big shock that support is high for eliminating property taxes, even knowing that they made up almost half the city’s revenue last year. I’d be interested to know where they’d like that 42% to come from instead — maybe a question for the next poll.”
THE BEACHES: Respondents were split over whether the Beaches, including Jacksonville, Neptune and Atlantic Beach, should form their own county separate from Duval County. More respondents strongly opposed the idea (29%) than strongly supported it (19%).
The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 4.4 percentage points, including estimated design effect due to weighting.
For more information, visit unf.edu/coas/porl.
