Two Jacksonville Democrats appear, as of now, to have an uncomplicated path to winning election to the Florida House.<\/p>\n
But appearances can be deceiving.<\/p>\n
Audrey Gibson, the former leader of the Senate Democrats, is unopposed in her bid to replace Angie Nixon in House District 13 after Reggie Gaffney decided instead to run in the local elections in 2027 \u2014 in a race to be determined.<\/p>\n
And Rep. Kim Daniels, elected in House District 14 in 2022, right now has no competition in her bid for a third consecutive term and fifth term in the House (recall that she lost to Nixon in 2020 but benefited from redistricting in 2022, which allowed her to make a political comeback). Daniels\u2019 previous opponent, Therese Wakefield-Gamble, decided against a second try as her fundraising faltered.<\/p>\n
Gibson and Daniels don\u2019t necessarily align politically; the former is a more traditional Democrat, and the latter has often sided with Republicans on bills on abortion and religious expression<\/a>, in moves that daunt Dems but accord with her vocation as a Christian minister.<\/p>\n As Angie Nixon<\/a> likely can tell you, being a Democrat in the Florida House can be a thankless job.<\/p>\n Your appropriations requests likely won\u2019t make it through. You do get familiar with I-10 and Busy Bee, and making passionate speeches and filing amendments to gut GOP legislation to no avail, because your party is in superminority status.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason Nixon is running for Senate. Or Jacksonville City Council. Or whatever.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s because being a Tallahassee Democrat can be a waste of time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible to get some traction if you\u2019re willing to go along with the Republican agenda, but that comes at the expense of progress in your caucus.<\/p>\n If you adhere to what are Democratic values on issues like health care, reproductive rights, and so on, you likely are marginalized, as Nixon is.\u00a0<\/p>\n She has filed ambitious bills<\/a> for years, covering issues ranging from cannabis to labor rights, but to what end?<\/p>\n They don\u2019t even get one committee hearing, never mind the three or four they would need to even get to the House floor.<\/p>\n When it became clear last week that Gibson and Daniels would be, for now, unopposed, a number of Democrats reached out to me to say that opposition may manifest.<\/p>\n At least one of them was a current elected official.<\/p>\n That person \u2013 and I will keep this as a blind item here to respect the off-record conversation \u2013 is not running. But they say there may be opposition for Gibson in 13 and maybe Daniels in 14.<\/p>\n Time will tell.\u00a0<\/p>\n Should there be competition though?<\/p>\n Depends on your perspective on the candidates and politics writ large.<\/p>\n The argument for Gibson and Daniels is that they\u2019ve been through the process, they\u2019ve scored victories over the years, and in their respective capacities, they may be able to score some modest wins despite potentially again being in a legislative superminority, especially with Jacksonville Sen. Tracie Davis set to lead the Democratic Senate Caucus starting next year.<\/p>\n The argument against them may be more existential.<\/p>\n Gibson will be 71 when the 2027 session is kicking off.<\/p>\n Daniels will turn 60 shortly after next year\u2019s session ends.<\/p>\n This is not intended to sound ageist \u2013 your columnist here is in the zone with AARP eligibility, senior discounts, and early bird specials, and the most relevant things on television to him these days are the Colonial Penn ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there is the issue of bringing new ideas and perspectives to the fore from Jacksonville Democrats, similarly to what happens in other parts of the state and the nation.<\/p>\n The book on older, pragmatic politicians is that they know how the game works \u2026 but they acquired the knowledge at the expense of the idealism that is the province of youth and naivete.<\/p>\n They\u2019re willing to go 15 rounds and take their chances at winning or losing on decision, but in doing so they are fighting a fight that makes more sense from a tactical perspective than one that dazzles.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen if my Democratic friends are just talking about challengers manifesting. Recall that Daniels faced two opponents in 2024\u2019s primary, and got nearly \u2154 of the vote.<\/p>\n Who wants to face that buzzsaw?<\/p>\n And Gibson, though she struggled against Donna Deegan<\/a> in March 2023\u2019s election and fell short when she challenged Nikki Fried for the chair of the state Democratic Party thereafter, has a lot of relationships in this town and has forgotten more about campaigning than many of her detractors will ever know.<\/p>\n It has to be said, too, that there is a vast difference between the disempowered Democratic Party and the disciplined GOP.\u00a0<\/p>\n How many quixotic challenges do you see in this region in House races on the Republican side, beyond House Speaker-designate Sam Garrison<\/a> of Clay County somehow drawing two primary challengers as he prepares to take the gavel next year? And it remains to be seen if they qualify.\u00a0<\/p>\n