{"id":366393,"date":"2026-08-08T19:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366393\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:10:20","slug":"poll-shev-jones-opens-up-9-point-lead-over-oliver-gilbert-in-cd-24-democratic-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366393\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Shev Jones opens up 9-point lead over Oliver Gilbert in CD 24 Democratic primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Shevrin Jones holds the advantage in the Democratic Primary for Florida\u2019s 24th Congressional District, though more than a quarter of likely voters remain undecided less than two weeks before Election Day, according to a new St. Pete Polls<\/a> survey commissioned by Florida Politics.<\/p>\n

The poll found Jones leading with 33.1% support, followed by Miami-Dade County Commission Chair Oliver Gilbert III at 23.4% and Kendrick Meek Jr. at 17.5%. Another 26% of likely Democratic Primary voters remain undecided ahead of the Aug. 18 Primary.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a reversal from St. Pete Polls\u2019 July survey<\/a> of the race, which showed Gilbert on top with 27% to Jones\u2019 24% and Meek near 10%, with 36% undecided. Jones has since gained about 9 percentage points and Meek more than 7, while Gilbert slipped. A late July internal poll<\/a> also had Jones ahead.<\/p>\n

Among voters who have already cast ballots, Jones expands his advantage to 37.3%, while Gilbert improves to 31.3% and Meek trails at 10.8%. About 31% of respondents said they had already voted. Among those still planning to vote, however, nearly 29% remain undecided, leaving room for movement in the race\u2019s final stretch.<\/p>\n

Gilbert\u2019s stronger showing among ballots already cast follows from where his support sits. Respondents 70 and older were the most likely to have already voted, and they gave Gilbert his best numbers of any age group. Jones led in every age bracket. He also led among Black voters, who made up nearly three-quarters of respondents, while Gilbert posted his best result with Hispanic voters at 35.7%. Gilbert ran nearly 10 points better with women than with men.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The poll also asked voters to name a second choice. Jones again topped the list at 20.9%, Meek took 19.9% and Gilbert 11.9%. Nearly half of respondents didn\u2019t name one.<\/p>\n

The survey, conducted Aug. 5-6, questioned 262 likely Democratic Primary voters through a combination of automated phone calls (70%) and text messages (30%), with results weighted by race, age and gender. It carries a 6.1 percentage-point margin of error. The sample was drawn from the district\u2019s boundaries as adopted in May, covering parts of northern Miami-Dade and southern Broward counties.<\/p>\n

The poll tested the three leading contenders in a Primary field of seven Democrats vying to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who has held the seat since 2011. Whoever wins the Primary will be a heavy favorite in the deep-blue district in November.<\/p>\n

The poll comes as Gilbert\u2019s campaign released a new TV ad<\/a> while accusing a cryptocurrency-backed outside group of spending nearly $1 million to defeat him.<\/p>\n

Gilbert\u2019s campaign said Protect Progress has spent nearly $1 million on television advertising attacking his candidacy. The campaign noted the organization receives most of its funding from Fairshake, a cryptocurrency industry super PAC backed by companies such as Coinbase and Ripple, and argued the spending reflects opposition from interests aligned with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe same billionaires who supported Donald Trump are now spending nearly a million dollars to attack me,\u201d Gilbert said in a statement. \u201cI know why. They know I am going to stand up to Trump, and they will do anything to stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert also pointed to his endorsement from Wilson, who said she supports his campaign because of his record serving the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Shevrin Jones holds the advantage in the Democratic Primary for Florida\u2019s 24th Congressional District, though more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-366393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}