State Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, filed his intention to run for Jacksonville mayor on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, at the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 2, 2026 at 5:19 pm
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Wyman Duggan — the Florida House speaker pro tempore, lawyer and lobbyist — announced his run for Jacksonville mayor on Friday, arguing the need for city leaders to rein in record spending and fix what he called a breakdown of consolidated government.
After filing his official candidate paperwork at the Supervisor of Elections Office in Downtown, the Republican told news reporters that he’s running to lower rising city fees, property tax bills and utility costs he says are “squeezing” residents.
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Duggan says he also wants to see the city shift more of its Downtown development spending priorities, specifically cash incentives, to Jacksonville’s neighborhoods.
“Every decision I make will start from one premise: Does it make life better for the people who actually live here?” Duggan said. “I want a Downtown the city is proud of. But Downtown should not come first every single time. Imagine what Jacksonville neighborhoods could look like if City Hall invested the same energy and urgency to the streets where we actually live, work, worship and raise our families.
“Downtown has gotten plenty of attention. Now our neighborhoods deserve theirs,” he said.
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Duggan’s announcement makes him the first Republican with broad name recognition to declare a run against Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan in the March 2027 election.
Deegan, who in 2023 was the first Democrat elected mayor since 2011, filed in April to run for a second term.
During the news conference, Duggan called out what he says is a lack of leadership from the mayor’s office during recent turmoil at several of the city’s independent authorities including JEA, Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the city’s housing and aviation authorities.
“Consolidated government is breaking down,” Duggan said. “We’re supposed to have a mayor who’s going to get in, roll up their sleeves, and get in and solve problems, and that includes our authorities that are vested in our city charter, around the table and say, ‘Listen we need to work together for all of Jacksonville. Not within your silo. Not within your colloquial interest.”
On Friday, the 57-year-old lawmaker touted his legislative record including Brooke’s Law, requiring social media companies to delete sexually explicit depictions and deepfakes without their consent.
And legislation he co-sponsored that made it easier for state prosecutors to hold people accountable if they suspect child abuse but don’t report, passed after problems surfaced at Jacksonville’s Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
He pointed to legislation he sponsored that repealed Florida’s business rent tax on commercial leases and said he helped secure $58.5 million in state funding for 39 Jacksonville projects in 2026.
Duggan pointed to JEA’s latest electric and water rates increase that went into effect Thursday as an example of Jacksonville’s rising living expenses. When asked if he would consider a push to lower the city’s property tax millage rate, the recently increased garbage fee and JEA utility fees, he said “all of it is on the table.”
“That is the job. Somebody brings you a problem, you go fix it,” he said.
In a statement Friday, the Duval County Democratic Party released a statement attacking Duggan’s legislative record, saying he supported legislation that shifted decision-making authority away from local governments to state officials.
The release points to his support for giving the state more say in land use and zoning changes and alludes to Duggan’s vote in favor of putting Amendment 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot — a property tax cut that the City Council auditor says would drop Jacksonville’s revenue by $300 million per year.
“Jacksonville deserves a leader who stands up for our community every day, not someone whose record consistently favors Tallahassee over local families,” Millie Leeds, chair of the Duval County Democratic Party,” said in a statement.
“When voters look beyond the campaign rhetoric and examine Wyman Duggan’s legislative record, they’ll see a pattern of supporting policies that weaken our local community’s ability to address pressing issues and jeopardize the investments that make Jacksonville a great place to live.”
Duggan argues that partisan behavior and a lack of relationship building across the aisle from the Deegan administration are partly to blame for turmoil at the city’s independent authorities and for the city’s spending increases.
Duggan claimed the Deegan administration’s cross-party posture is why Jacksonville lost federal funding for the 30-mile Emerald Trail project. That $147 million grant was one of many the Trump administration pulled back last year as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
At the time, Deegan said federal officials informed the city that, under the new law, all grants previously issued under the Biden administration’s Neighborhoods Access and Equity Grant Program were “summarily dismissed.”
“It may make the administration feel good about themselves and allow them to virtue signal, but it doesn’t help the citizens,” Duggan said Friday. “That’s how we lost $147 million for the Emerald Trail.”
Who’s running for mayor?
Duggan’s entry into the race brings the total number of candidates filed to 13 — Deegan as the lone Democrat and five Republicans. The remaining candidates are write-ins and an independent. But all the candidates will have to qualify for the ballot.
The qualifying period for the 2027 city elections is noon Jan. 11 through noon Jan. 15, 2027.
Duggan’s city lobbying paused
Duggan’s mayoral run comes as his fourth and final term ends this year in the Florida House. He’s term-limited.
Duggan’s government involvement locally extends into lobbying. He has been an attorney since 2004 at the Jacksonville firm Rogers Towers, where he’s a shareholder and lobbies the city of Jacksonville and City Council on behalf of clients. His focuses are in land use, zoning, development agreements and local government process.
He told reporters Friday that he would cease lobbying activity at the city during his mayoral campaign.
As of Friday, the city’s lobbyist tracking system maintained by the ethics office shows all of Duggan’s clients and issues he lobbied for have been removed.
Duggan and Amendment 3
In June, Duggan was one of seven Jacksonville lawmakers in Tallahassee to vote yes on sending Amendment 3 to the ballot. The measure has been met with warnings from public safety groups, business leaders, Florida Tax Watch and others.
If the amendment passes, the next Jacksonville mayor will inherit a city budget — which this year sat at more than $2 billion — with hundreds of millions less in city coffers.
During his news conference, Duggan said Florida’s chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, found $200 million of what he called “wasteful spending” in Jacksonville’s budget.
Duggan was referencing the Florida DOGE report as a starting point for a new mayoral administration and City Council to make cuts. But when city auditors and council members analyzed Ingoglia’s report in February, they could not identify all the spending he identified as wasteful.
”I’m not saying we’re gonna cut, cut, cut, but we’re gonna reexamine assumptions and we’re going to make the right choices,” Duggan said. “And maybe there are things that government shouldn’t be responsible for funding from start to finish.”
As for Amendment 3, Duggan says the Legislature will trust the voters “to tell us how much government they can afford.”
“I would rather be the mayor that has to try and find a way to make it work than the mayor who’s been telling people they can’t have it,” Duggan said.
