Then-Jacksonville City Council President Scott Wilson speaks at a news conference Jan. 20, 2020. | Mike Mendenhall, Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on July 24, 2026 at 4:37 pm
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A past president of Jacksonville City Council president — the person who launched the city’s 2020 investigation into the attempted sale of JEA — is making a bid to challenge District 4 council member Kevin Carrico next year.
Republican Scott Wilson filed paperwork with the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office on July 13, declaring his candidacy for City Council District 4.
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Wilson’s decision would likely create an intraparty fight in the March 9, 2027, election between him and Carrico, the Republican who succeeded Wilson after winning a special election for the seat in 2020.
Speaking at the Jacksonville Elks Lodge on July 13, Wilson attacked Carrico’s record and accessibility to District 4 residents.
“District 4 deserves strong representation from a council member who is accessible, responsive, accountable and focused on results,” Wilson said in the speech.
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“We don’t need someone who thinks promising favors to his friends is good government. And we certainly don’t need state’s attorney investigations,” he said. “What we need are improved parks, ball fields and a library, just like the senior center I secured the funds to build.
“We don’t need ‘Wag the Dog’ distractions that divert attention from the main work of government and cost taxpayers thousands of wasted dollars. What we need are infrastructure improvements and protection from bad rezoning. And we don’t need a council member who thinks hiding public information is a behavior of accountability,” he said.
In June, Carrico finished a tumultuous year as City Council president.
He’s currently facing a State Attorney’s Office investigation stemming from a reported text exchange where Carrico said he “owed a big favor to a friend” that was linked to the appointment of the CEO of his employer to the JEA board.
Carrico got into public back-and-forths with allies of Mayor Donna Deegan on council. And he also accused JEA leadership of creating a toxic work environment and allowing racism in the workplace. He launched his own council probe into the agency.
Carrico also had some wins. After a 13-hour debate, he got a city budget through council with a city property tax millage rate cut. He also helped secure the pick of Downtown Jacksonville for the Culinary Institute of America’s new Southeast campus and regional headquarters.
Two weeks ago, Wilson announced his retirement from his position as capital projects manager with the Downtown Investment Authority. He moved to that city agency after a stint in Deegan’s administration as council liaison. Wilson was one of a bipartisan group of former council members recruited by mayor in 2023 to serve in her administration.
Wilson was first elected to District 4 in 2015 and reelected in 2019. Before he was an elected official, he served as an executive council aid at City Hall for eight years.
He was council president from July 2019 to June 2020, navigating the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and formed a special committee to investigate an attempt to sell the city’s public utility, JEA. That, along with new media reporting, led to a federal conspiracy and wire fraud conviction of JEA’s former CEO Aaron Zahn.
For his part, Wilson faced criticism when it was reported that he attended a baseball game in Atlanta in the months leading up to the JEA sale attempt with then-Mayor Lenny Curry, Zahn, then-City Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes and two lobbyists.
Wilson addressed that incident in his statement July 13.
“Some of those involved in the attempted sale tried to suggest that because I attended an Atlanta Braves game, I somehow supported their efforts. Nothing was further from the truth,” Wilson said. “My vote is not for sale and never has been. I did not support the sale of JEA. I understand why the trip raised concerns, and I learned from it.”
Carrico says Wilson ‘abandoned’ District 4
Should Carrico decide to run for reelection, there would be a three-way race between the two Republicans and Democrat Robert Todd Jeffers, a government affairs specialist for the Southern Regional Council of Carpenters.
Carrico tells Jacksonville Today that he’s “very likely to run again.” But with eight months until the election, he says “there’s no rush to file.” As of Friday afternoon, Carrico had not submitted paperwork with the elections supervisor for next year’s race.
“As for me, I’ll have an announcement about my next steps in the near future,” Carrico said Friday in a text message.
Carrico criticized Wilson’s decision to trade elected office for city employment, although Wilson officially resigned from council in 2020 for a failed election run for Duval County Clerk of Circuit Court.
“Scott Wilson abandoned our community years ago and moved out of our district to chase a six-figure, taxpayer-funded salary,” Carrico said in the text message. “I’d like to know exactly when he moved back here, and whether he intends to resign his position with the city now that he’s a candidate — or if he plans to campaign on the city’s dime.”
Wilson officially retired from the Downtown Investment Authority on July 10, which was also his last day of city employment, according to the city’s chief communication’s officer, Phil Perry.
His salary working for the city agency was $119,616 per year, Perry said.
Wilson said he moved back to District 4 in May after a couple of years living in Downtown’s Cathedral District while employed by the city.
The address listed on Wilson’s official campaign documents is an apartment on Corporate Center Parkway near Interstate 95 on the southwest side of District 4.
Financing the District 4 campaign
If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in the city’s March election, the top two candidates will face off in the May 6, 2027 general election.
Although Carrico has not officially filed, the Jax Good Government political committee that backs him has about $277,600 on hand, based on the most recent campaign finance activity.
Wilson says he does not have a political committee. With eight months to go until the March election, the supervisor’s website does not show any contributions to Wilson’s official campaign account.
