JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Donna Deegan officially filed paperwork on Thursday to seek re-election, citing progress on neighborhoods, public safety, affordability and economic development that the mayor said is transforming downtown.
Deegan announced her candidacy at the Duval Supervisor of Elections Main Office at 105 E. Monroe Street.
“I’m running because I believe in a simple idea: we can build a Jacksonville that works for everyone,” Deegan said. “From day one, we built this administration by listening, hosting town halls across the city, and turning your feedback into action. We’ve gotten a lot done together, and we’re just getting started.”
She said that she will pledge to continue lowering costs for Jacksonville families and ensure no neighborhood is left behind.
“Every family deserves to afford a good life here in Jacksonville,” she said. “We still have work to do and we’re going to keep getting things done — together.”
She pointed to nearly 7,000 affordable housing units either completed or in the pipeline and said the city has increased literacy rates to more than 50 percent for the first time. Deegan also touted a rising job market and efforts to position Jacksonville as a small-business hub in the Southeast.
“We’re pushing forward to becoming the small business capital of the Southeast,” she said. “All those things to provide a return on investment and right now, very heavily focused on continuing our affordable housing initiatives.”
Deegan said she has worked to build a bipartisan administration and to keep partisan politics from slowing progress. Though she acknowledged that opposition is likely, she said party affiliation will not drive her priorities.
“I have never, ever put my party out front of anything,” she said. “I put my love for Jacksonville out front. My focus is Team Jacksonville, period.”
Though city council is mostly Republican, Deegan said the council has approved nearly all of her administration’s priorities.
“We have gotten 98, 99% of what we have wanted and needed through that council,” she said, adding that occasional political noise is part of public life.
If re-elected, Deegan said she will press to finish projects already under way downtown — including new riverfront parks and work around Friendship Fountain — and continue investing in the neighborhoods residents have identified as most in need of city resources.
“We want to make sure that all the things that are in the pipeline get done and that this community reaches its full potential,” she said.
Deegan began her first term after a campaign in which she pledged to bring “more love, more unity, more change for good.” Her re-election bid sets the stage for a campaign that will focus on sustaining the momentum she says has taken hold across the city.