Southside Jacksonville evangelist Doris Rodgers spent her Friday morning posted outside the Northside’s Highlands Regional Library, one of Jacksonville’s early voting sites. She wasn’t holding a Bible or talking about her faith but saw this morning as another kind of ministry: She’s one of more than 25 Jacksonville faith leaders trained as a “poll chaplain,” tasked with ensuring voters feel
The great unanswered question of the 2022 election cycle for Northeast Florida Republicans was what Cord Byrd would end up doing. Would he run for state Senate, opposing Clay Yarborough? Would he run for Congress, joining a field that includes political outsider Erick Aguilar and veteran politician Jason Fischer in the Congressional District 4 race (assuming the governor’s map ultimately
There was no surprise, none at all, for readers of this column regarding what the Florida Legislature would do with the problem of the new congressional reapportionment map. We wrote it over two months ago: “Ron DeSantis isn’t bluffing about his map.” Lots of poetic justifications of the current Congressional District 5 followed, all sound and fury signifying nothing when
On Thursday morning, the Fox & Friends program began the 7 o’clock hour blasting the city of Jacksonville. The catalyst was a long shot of the Main Street Bridge, and that’s all it took for host Brian Kilmeade to go off. “The city of Jacksonville’s got such great potential. They’ve got these bridges. Beautiful scenery. They’ve got to rebuild that
Imagine you’re Clay Yarborough, a current state representative who thought the next campaign was all set. A few months back, you basically were a shoo-in for state Senate. Your two opponents got out of the race to replace termed-out Aaron Bean after Senate leadership endorsed you. One of those opponents, state Rep. Jason Fischer, had about a million bucks raised
As the Legislature wrapped up its business Friday, the last bit of work before passing the budget Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis put in some work of his own, appointing a local woman to the state Board of Education, a post subject to Senate confirmation. DeSantis chose Esther Byrd of Neptune Beach, who recently lost a City Council race in that
Duval County legislators were at the center of drama in the Florida Legislature last week, and the confrontation spoke to an essential truth in regional politics: Jacksonville has not resolved its race issues. As the House approved a ban on abortions after 15 weeks (that’s a tad more than three months past conception), protests rose in the chamber, with chants
We will have a few live August contests in this region next summer. While top-of-the-ticket stuff leaves some intrigue for the November general election, the down-ballot stuff is often of greatest interest in these primaries. For those who need it, here’s a cheat sheet breaking down the partisan dynamics in play and the potential outcomes. The biggest-stakes competitive primary is
