JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The fallout from Jacksonville’s mayoral election is making waves in the Republican race for president.
Following the Donna Deegan victory and Daniel Davis loss, former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to try and pin the Republican loss on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis endorsed Davis.
“Wow! In a big upset, the DeSanctimonious backed Republican candidate for Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, LOST. This is a shocker,” Trump wrote. “If they would have asked me to Endorse, he would have won, easily. Too proud to do so. Fools! This is a BIG LOSS for the Republican Party.”
Ed Dean, the host of “The Ed Dean Radio Show,” a conservative radio show based in Jacksonville, said that statement mischaracterizes what happened.
“It’s nothing but spin. I mean if you really want to talk about spinning this, let’s talk about who was on the board with the Daniel Davis campaign. It was nothing but Trump allies,” said Dean. “If you look at DeSantis’ record versus Trump’s in Florida. And by the way, I’ll throw this back to some of my Trump friends. Why is it that the main key races for the US Senate last year of the Trump endorsements lost in the general election.”
Dean’s audience is mostly made up of Trump and DeSantis supporters and he said the loss by Davis was a major talking point on his radio show Wednesday morning. He said the DeSantis endorsement of Davis didn’t cause the loss.
He pointed to the contentious primary where there was a considerable amount of negative advertising that targeted other local Republicans like LeAnna Cumber and Al Ferraro.
“They were very frustrated. Turned off. We were talking to the business community. They were like, ‘We don’t even want to vote,’” said Dean.