It’s because the state’s largest city will also be a key to winning Florida in the 2016 presidential election, and having an ally in the mayor’s office can only help.
Perry, Bush and Rubio have an eye on the White House next year and each is helping former state Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry, who’s challenging incumbent Democrat Alvin Brown. Clinton, whose wife Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for president, came to Jacksonville to raise money for Brown.
“It just shows you the stakes that the state Republican Party believes are here,” said Matthew Corrigan, a University of North Florida political science professor. “Rick Perry and Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush — this is looking like a Republican operation, not a Jacksonville mayor’s race.”
Florida is considered one of the most important pieces in winning the White House as the largest of swing states. While Miami is the state’s largest metropolitan area, Jacksonville’s mayor serves all of Duval County, which has about 900,000 residents. Duval County and has played a role in recent presidential elections. Without it, George W. Bush wouldn’t have won in 2000, when he carried Florida by 537 votes and Duval County by 44,234 votes. He carried Duval in 2004 by 61,586 votes.
But President Barack Obama targeted Jacksonville in 2008 and 2012 with the goal of making a solidly Republican area more competitive. About 30 percent of the city is black, or roughly double the statewide average. Obama’s campaign substantially increased black voter registration and turnout and cut the Republican margin of victory Bush saw by tens of thousands of votes. John McCain won Duval by less than 8,000 in 2008 and Mitt Romney carried it by fewer than 15,000 in 2012. Obama carried the state.
