Republican Nick Howland defeated Democrat Tracye Polson on Feb. 22 in the Jacksonville City Council Group 3 At-Large special election runoff to fill the seat vacated by the late Tommy Hazouri.
Howland’s win flips party control of the seat and adds to the local GOP’s now 14-member supermajority control of the 19-member Council.
Unofficial results posted on the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office website showed Howland with 51.69% of the vote to Polson’s 48.31% at 9:02 a.m. Feb. 23 with all 199 precincts reporting.
Howland received 68,599 votes to Polson’s 64,113.
Voter turnout was 20.35% out of Duval County’s 652,230 active eligible voters.
Despite Democrats holding 36,646 registered voter advantage in Duval County and a lead in early voting, Republicans won the Election Day turnout battle.
In total, 62,080 Republican votes were recorded as of 9:02 a.m. compared to 57,430 by Democrats. No party affiliation votes was 12,011 votes. Other accounted for 1,237.
Howland is a U.S. Navy veteran and executive director of The Fire Watch, a nonprofit group working to end veteran suicide.
He lost a bid in 2018 for the Duval County School Board District 2 seat to Elizabeth Andersen.
Polson is a licensed clinical social worker who was defeated in the 2018 Florida House District 15 race by Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville.
Polson’s loss Feb. 22 comes after she topped the field in the four-candidate primary Dec. 7 for the seat, edging Howland by nearly 1 point but not receiving the 50% plus 1 needed to avoid the runoff.
