IN THE JACKSONVILLE MAYOR'S RACE, THE DEMOCRAT WON. DeSANTIS AND TRUMP BOTH LOST.

Great news for Democrats:

Democrat Donna Deegan won the Jacksonville mayor’s race Tuesday night, a shocking upset that hands Florida Democrats a major shot of energy less than six months after they were trounced in the 2022 midterms and considered left for dead by the national party.

Deegan came into Election Day as the decided underdog against Republican Daniel Davis, who is the head of the city’s Chamber of Commerce and had a significant fundraising advantage. He was endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis....

With all of the city’s 186 precincts reporting, Deegan had a 52% to 48% advantage over Davis...

Deegan is a former TV anchor in the city with significant name recognition. After she left TV, she went on to found a nonprofit group that focuses on breast cancer research. She will be the city's first female mayor.

DeSantis endorsed Davis (although he didn't campaign with him), but Davis isn't the only prominent Republican who lost in Jacksonville yesterday. Florida Politics reports:

Davis tacked to the right ahead of the May 16 election, including holding a forum with Board of Education member Esther Byrd and School Board member April Carney in lieu of a final debate with Deegan. He also brooked controversy with a forum with partisan blogger Brendon Leslie, whose attendance at the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, is controversial.

I told you about Esther Byrd last year, when Ron DeSantis appointed her to the Florida Board of Education. She's a big fan of Donald Trump and the movements surrounding him:

After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, Mrs. Byrd offered a defense of those “peacefully protesting” the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election while alluding to “coming civil wars.”

“ANTIFA and BLM can burn and loot buildings and violently attack police and citizens,” Byrd wrote on her personal Facebook page. “But when Trump supporters peacefully protest, suddenly ‘Law and Order’ is all they can talk about! I can’t even listen to these idiots bellyaching about solving our differences without violence.” ...

In October [2021], Mrs. Byrd offered an unsolicited defense of the Proud Boys....

“Why do you think Facebook is throwing people in FB Jail who share information about Proud Boys? (Side note: I must really have great friends cause a whole bunch have been locked up! 😂) I think it’s because they’ve seen a drastic spike in searches and they are worried that people are educating themselves rather than blindly believing what MSM narrative. Anyone have a better theory?”

Those statements came months after Byrd made comments supportive of QAnon after the couple was photographed on a boat flying a QAnon flag.

The comments in support of QAnon have been removed, but here are photos of Byrd on a boat flying Trump and QAnon flags:

Byrd’s wife @EstherByrd19 organized their first yacht club event on May 16 and their next one is on June 14. Mrs. Byrd posted photos of their friends’ boat they rode in for the first event. Notice the QAnon flag they’re flying.https://t.co/weHFRHYIaZhttps://t.co/dAUTSa31YI pic.twitter.com/QpaR0b9yBZ

— Phillip Perry (@phillipperry) June 7, 2020

April Carney is a DeSantis-loving member of the Duval County School Board who is believed to have been at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, largely because, after reading a Facebook post claiming that the J6 insurrectionists were members of Antifa, she responded, "WRONG. I was there."

Brendon Leslie, as noted above, was at the Capitol on January 6, and entered the bulding by his own admission. He went on to become the founder and CEO of Florida's Voice, one of the few non-Murdoch media outlets DeSantis will talk to, undoubtedly because of the fawning coverage he receives there. (Sample headline: "‘Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival’: DeSantis Launching Book to Detail ‘Battle-Tested’ Victory Plan for the U.S.")

These were the people Daniel Davis surrounded himself with in the run-up to this election -- and he lost.

A couple of thoughts: First, however much we want to divide Republicans into Trump and DeSantis camps, it's clear from all this that many Republicans have been fervent supporters of both. I think that's true even outside Florida, although Republicans are now faced with the need to choose sides.

But also note that Trumpism and DeSantisism -- really, right-wing radicalism in general -- might have been a bit toxic for some voters in Jacksonville. Obviously not massively toxic -- this was a close race -- but maybe just toxic enough.

How much of the country has had it with the present-day GOP? We'll find out in the next year and a half.