More than 500 people attended a meet and greet with election candidates in St. Johns County on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. | Photo courtesy Carly Zervis
Published on August 2, 2024 at 4:12 pm
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There could be some surprises in the primary election in St. Johns County, judging from a recent straw poll.
Candidates who have barely campaigned received some support, and some challengers ran strong against incumbents in a poll of 400 people after a gathering sponsored this week by the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce.
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Visitors had the opportunity to talk to a number of candidates running to represent St. Johns County in the Statehouse, on the Board of County Commissioners and as sheriff, among others.
This week’s event at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center in St. Augustine was the second event the chamber had held this month, each ending with a straw poll. The earlier event was held at Beachside High School on the county’s northside.
Daniel Lee, the chamber’s marketing and tourism development director, noted that people who cast ballots in the straw polls could vote in any race, not just the races where they live and vote.
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Results were similar between the two events, even with fewer ballots cast in the event at Beachside High School.
Interesting dynamics in the races showed through, like in the hotly contested races for St. Johns County Commission.
In the District 1 race, incumbent County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst is looking to hold onto the seat he won in 2020. His main challenger, Ann-Marie Evans, wasn’t far behind in either poll, but Whitehurst still beat her 52% to 47% in the Beachside poll and 55% to 42% in the St. Augustine poll.
Evans and Whitehurst attended both events to meet with voters, but in each poll, a candidate who has barely campaigned and did not attend still managed to garner some support.
Weston Ferguson received 1% of the vote in the Beachside poll and 3% of the vote in the St. Augustine poll.
Ferguson, a Republican, hasn’t responded to any of Jacksonville Today’s attempts to reach her. Based on her connections to several other candidates who aren’t campaigning, she has the attributes of what some experts call a ghost candidate.
Another such candidate, John Higbee III, who is running for St. Johns County Commission District 3, received votes in both straw polls.
Incumbent County Commissioner Henry Dean won both straw polls against his closest opponent, Ann Taylor, 51% to 46% in Beachside and 59% to 40% in St. Augustine. But Higbee, a Republican, received 3% of the vote in Beachside and 2% in St. Augustine, despite doing no campaigning beyond launching a website.
Dean and Taylor attended both events, while Higbee sat them out
In races where the margins might be tight, those votes matter. Especially in races that will functionally be decided after the August primary election — where the Republican who wins that contest will face off against a write-in or no-party-affiliated candidate.
Speaking with Jacksonville Today in June, St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes noted that a primary election in the county has not surpassed 31% turnout since 2004.
In 2020, about 59,000 ballots were cast in the August primary election, and some races, like Coleman’s last victory in a School Board race, were decided by just 2,000 votes.
Changes for some seats?
Not every sitting county commissioner fared so well. In both straw polls, incumbent Roy Alaimo lost to his closest opponent, Clay Murphy.
Murphy beat Alaimo 48% to 42% in the Beachside poll and 56% to 40% in the St. Augustine poll.
Murphy’s campaign — like Evans’ and Taylor’s — has centered on promoting slower growth than he argues his opponent has supported on the County Commission.
Alaimo, a former head of the local Republican Executive Committee and chair of the county’s Planning and Zoning board, got his seat on the County Commission thanks to an appointment from Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 after County Commissioner Paul Waldron died.
In the races for sheriff and School Board, incumbents and a candidate with the backing of the local Republican Party led in their polls.
St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick was the clear winner over his Republican opponent Jim Priester — 67% to 33% in the Beachside poll, 61% to 39% in St. Augustine. Similarly, incumbent School Board District 2 candidate Anthony E. Coleman Sr. handily beat his opponent, political newcomer Francis “Frank” Cummings, in both polls — 36% to 26% in Beachside and 71% to 29% in St. Augustine.
In the race for School Board District 5, Linda Thomson, the candidate with the support of the local Republican Party, was the favorite. She took home 46% of the vote in the Beachside poll and 38% in the St. Augustine poll. Thomson beat her closest opponent, Bethany Hilbert, in each poll by 5 percentage points in St. Augustine and 20 points in Beachside.
Incumbent candidates and familiar faces performed the best in the state races, too, with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Reps. John Rutherford and Michael Waltz outperforming their opponents by at least 20 percentage points in each poll and, in some cases, as much as 60 points.
A business owner’s perspective
One person attending the event in St. Augustine was Philip McDaniel, co-owner of St. Augustine Distillery and City Gate Spirits.
Top of mind for this small business owner is races for the state Legislature and the County Commission.
“We have little under 100 employees between the two businesses, so having candidates who understand the importance of small business, who understand the importance of tourism and supporting tourism … that’s really what I’m looking for,” McDaniel told Jacksonville Today. “Because if my business is healthy, then I keep our team employed and happy and the business rocks.”
Getting to meet candidates face to face didn’t change his mind in any of the races he’s watching, but it did make him feel more secure about the candidates he’s supporting. Above all, he said, he enjoyed seeing everyone get the chance to talk about the topics St. Johns County residents care about.
“I thought it was just wonderful, the fact that so many people were able to come together from all walks of life to be able to meet and greet, interact and exchange conversations with these candidates who were all out trying to do public service,” he said. “I thought it was brilliant.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the percentages in the County Commission District 5 straw poll results. A previous version of the story included a typo.
