JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Aaron Bean won the Republican nomination for Congressional District 4. By the time this story was published, there were about 200 total votes separating Democratic nominees LaShonda Holloway and Tony Hill.
If it is too close to call and specifically by a margin of half of 1 percent or less the total votes, there will be a recount.
As of right now, Holloway is in the lead.
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The run for Congressional District 4 comes as the new congressional map pushed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis creates an opportunity to potentially boost the number of Florida seats held by Republicans.
Republican opponent in CD 4, Jon Chuba, said that while he wanted a different outcome, he congratulated Bean.
“I know Aaron Bean will do a great job up there in DC for us, I think he will stand for a lot of the conservative values we all care about,” Chuba said.
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Action News Jax spoke with both the chairman of the Duval Democratic Party, Daniel Henry and the chairman of the Duval County Republican Party, Dean Black, about the redistricting.
Henry said the new map doesn’t create fair representation for African Americans.
“It’s been strategically created by including all of Nassau County and all of Clay County to ensure they can win it,” Henry said.
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The new map made significant changes to Al Lawson’s district, as he is now running in the panhandle, his district has primarily Black voters.
“This city has a plurality of Democrats that make up a majority of voting representation, African America Americans overwhelming identify as Democrat,” he said.
Black said the old layout wasn’t geographically sound.
“Let’s face it, the district we had before was strung out from here all the way to Tallahassee and obviously with that long of a geographical stretch the people will be better represented when they’re living in the same geographic area sharing the same issues,” he said.
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DeSantis argued the old map was an illegal gerrymander.
“We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based upon the color of their skin. That is wrong. That is not the way we’ve governed in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said in May.
Jon Rutherford won the Republican nomination for Congressional District 5 and has no Democratic opponent in November. He believes Republicans are in good shape to gain back a majority in the House.
“I think this is the beginning of a red wave that everybody has been talking about all summer long,” he said.
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The new map shows, based off former numbers, CD4 would also lean Republican.
“The possibility after November of having two Republicans representing constituents who don’t look like them, don’t vote the same way they do and don’t share the same values, it’s a disenfranchise,” Henry said.
Dean Black believes that everybody will be represented properly.
“I think Black voters have lots of choices, I think we can look for example right now to the city council,” he said. “The district we have right now is more compact. It will better represent all of the voters of whatever racial or demographic makeup and all citizens will be properly represented regardless of their race.”