When Melissa Nelson entered the hotel ballroom Tuesday night, her nervous smile instantly became broader. Her eyes, a little wider.
The applause was thunderous for Nelson, who had overwhelmingly beaten State Attorney Angela Corey.
Nelson started toward the podium but stopped after a few steps, the applause still loud. The wide smile was still there.
But before she could let it sink in completely, her 10-year-old daughter, Emory, grabbed her hand and led Nelson on the short path toward the stage.
Making it to that stage was a long process, despite the lopsided victory.
Nelson was a political newcomer with no name recognition among voters or crucial donors when she entered the race nearly four months ago. She was going up against someone who was perceived to be a strong incumbent.
Yet, there was a clear path to victory, albeit one with little margin for error.
It involved a short window. A lot of money. And even more effort.
Nelson followed that path almost exactly, which led her to that stage Tuesday celebrating a victory that helped reshape the Northeast Florida legal community.
Many within that same legal community for years had pushed Nelson to run for the office.
Change was needed, they said, and she was the right person to usher it in. Nelson had given it much thought and was flattered, but wanted to find another worthy candidate to support.
Yet, the talks never truly died down. She was that worthy candidate the entire time.
Making the decision
Nelson had first been approached four years ago, but the timing wasn’t right.
In 2012, Nelson had a growing private law career and young children.
She was just establishing herself at McGuireWoods and she and her husband, Jason, had three small children — Emory, who was 6 at the time, along with 5-year-old Clem and 3-year-old Boyd.
However, the past year brought back those private calls for her to give it a shot.
After seeing and hearing what had taken place over the past four years, Nelson became more convinced the office needed more accountability, stronger trust and better transparency — hallmarks of the campaign she would wage against her former colleague.
While Nelson’s desire was abundant, there was hesitancy. She never had done anything political. She needed guidance.
Longtime friend Ashton Hudson pitched her as a “potential superstar” to political consultant Tim Baker in September.
Baker is a data-driven politico with a knack for being on the winning side of races. He’s also an attorney who knew of Corey being a tough-on-crime Republican who was believed to be in decent shape with voters.
Still, he met Nelson last September and came away impressed. Bright, confident and conservative with the message of needed change he had heard before.
Her passion and desire were great, Baker said. But they weren’t enough to beat Corey.
For Nelson to have a shot, Baker said she would need to get in at the last minute and raise $1 million, a historic number for the race.
“I appreciated the bluntness,” said Nelson. “He’s a straight shooter.”
Over the course of the next several months, Baker informally advised Nelson, while also pitching Brian Hughes on her possible candidacy. The two have helped steer several high-profile campaigns to victory, most recently Mayor Lenny Curry’s win in 2015.
Hughes came on board about March, but even before then, Nelson was busy trying to garner support for that prescribed last-minute entry.
Yet, there was still uncertainty.
“The decision actually was agonizing,” said Nelson.
The passion for change remained. But locking in financial support and the public exposure to her family were concerns. It came down to the final days before qualifying in early May.
Leading up to that, the numbers weren’t working for Baker. Hughes was still on board, “a sucker for a true believer” after Nelson remained steadfast.
Baker came around, but both admitted Nelson was still a risky candidate. Sometimes, though, you have to go with your gut, the consultants said.
It had to be a gut decision for Nelson, too. Bringing her family into the public light was a heavy consideration, but her husband never waivered. The kids were on board, too, which led to a civically engaged summer.
It all meant Nelson was finally going for it. The decision that had kept her awake many nights was gone. It was full-steam ahead down the path.
Selling her vision
For a candidate with no name recognition, the cost of victory was steep. The price tag of $1 million never changed.
The first month, as Nelson said Tuesday evening, set the tone for the three-month blitzkrieg.
“All I had to do was get Melissa in front of donors,” said Hudson, who served as her finance chair. “She did the rest.”
Many of Nelson’s supporters are well-known political donors — Gary Chartrand, John Baker and Wayne Weaver, among them.
Yet, the claim of Nelson being a “checkbook candidate,” Hughes said, “is just wrong.”
“These people don’t just sit around throwing money at someone,” he said.
Baker said Nelson had to sell herself and her vision for the office. She was an unknown who had not sat down in front of money people to seek their support.
Her genuine desire shined from the first day, he said, which led to early success.
Chartrand, a longtime education advocate and influential political backer, had no idea who Nelson was when Hudson called him to schedule a meeting.
Chartrand said he did some research on her before meeting over coffee. He walked away “absolutely convinced,” he said.
After years of what he called questionable actions by Corey in high-profile cases, Chartrand said Nelson had the demeanor and vision to restore trust and integrity to the office.
“I want to be tough on crime,” he said. “But I want to be fair.”
He gave more than $125,000 toward her campaign. In the end, Nelson raised over $1.1 million from meetings like Chartrand’s.
She still had to win the masses, though, along the path to victory.
Meeting the voters
Meeting donors behind closed doors is one part of a campaign. Meeting voters at their doors is another.
“It’s my favorite part,” she said with a smile Saturday, just before walking Mandarin neighborhoods with her family and a horde of volunteers.
Door-knocking offered a chance to focus on people instead of the focus being on her.
As the campaign wore on, she noticed a change she attributes to her team’s effective marketing campaign.
Initially, people knew who Corey was, but not Nelson or the office. Over the weeks, that shifted. They started recognizing her and sharing Nelson’s desire for a change.
Others went an extra step, like the Orange Park man who ran out of his house after Nelson and her children started walking away one weekend. He was a supporter, but had something more to say.
“This is important for the job you’re going to have,” he said.
The man was a former drug dealer who spent time in prison. But he had turned his life around, earned a living, married and had children.
People like him, she said, was why she was running.
She became more comfortable as a candidate, which wasn’t the case early on.
Nelson would often over-explain issues and be extremely detailed when she spoke.
That’s great for the courtroom, but not so much for the campaign trail. It’s the antithesis of message discipline, said Hughes.
“If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” he said.
Nelson said after a forum in early August, she slightly shifted her message. It was no longer about the “what” and the “how” of her campaign but the “why.”
The “why,” she says, is to restore trust, confidence and transparency to an office that’s taken a hit to those areas in recent years.
There weren’t many moments of doubt. Not once she finally decided to make the leap.
Seeing and hearing the level of support she had early on led to the strong belief she had made the right decision.
She felt she would be victorious, but it didn’t stem from arrogance. It came from the almost instant momentum, the wave of support for change.
That wave led her to beat Corey by close to 50,000 votes. Wes White, a former assistant state attorney, finished third.
The road ahead
Nelson says one of the main attributes to leading the office is demeanor. “You can’t be emotional as a leader,” she said.
However, shortly after being led to the stage Tuesday night, Nelson showed some emotion. After Hudson introduced Nelson, she became choked up when relaying the story of mentioning a possible run to her law school girlfriends more than a year ago.
The support, she said, has been overwhelming and humbling in what was a difficult campaign. She was expected to compete against write-in candidate Kenny Leigh in November, but he told media outlets Wednesday he was dropping out.
Her path will now focus on leading the office when she takes over Jan. 1.
For Tuesday, though, it was about finishing the path to victory and thanking those who helped guide her.
That included Baker and Hughes, who she said took a chance on her and showed confidence in what to her was unfamiliar territory.
Every night during the campaign, Nelson said, one of them would call or text with a simple message: Did you win today?
On Tuesday, she did.
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