COMMENTARY | The Duval Democratic Party is imploding right on cue: Just as Republican candidates are gathering strength for an open mayoral race in 2023, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions, including some from known Democrats, the city's left-of-center party is, not for the first time in recent years, eating itself alive.
There is a widening chasm between the way Jacksonville votes in high-turnout statewide races — turning decisively blue for President Joe Biden last year, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum before that — and how it behaves in lower-turnout but still incredibly important citywide races for mayor, sheriff, City Council and constitutional offices. Two of the last three mayors have been white Republicans who live in San Marco — in fact, a small and prosperous slice of that already small neighborhood is incredibly overrepresented in the city's power structure.