UNF poll shows support for sheriff and mayor, but less for City Council

[Tacachale]

Love waking up to a new political poll.

UNF poll shows support for sheriff and mayor, but less for City Council
By Dan Scanlan
Published on June 3, 2025 at 5:03 am

Mayor Donna Deegan and Sheriff T.K. Waters both received high marks in the latest poll from the University of North Florida.

The state attorney also got high approval, but the Jacksonville City Council earned a slightly negative opinion, the polls says.

The poll, conducted from May 22 through 30 by the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF, included 742 registered Duval County voters. It sought opinions about local public officials as well as several issues affecting the community. The overall margin of error was +/- 4.4 percentage points.

Asked how the mayor is handling her job, 61% expressed approval, either strongly or somewhat, while 37% said they disapprove. The sheriff received 64% approval while 32% disapproved. State Attorney Melissa Nelson had a 61% approval rating, with 29% saying they disapproved.

Among elected officials, only the City Council had net negative approval, with 42% of those polled indicating they approve of the job lawmakers are doing and 53% expressing disapproval.

"City Council is the notable exception to otherwise high approvals across the board," said Michael Binder, faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab. "Maybe voters are tired of the petty partisan squabbling we've seen recently, or maybe some council members backed the wrong horse in the City Hall gun registry debacle."

UNF political science professor Sean Freeder said: "Deegan's approval ratings are high and consistent, still at 61% and down just 2% from about a year ago. This is fairly strong showing considering the ongoing anti-incumbent mood in the country, the significantly weaker approval of City Council, and Jacksonville's low Democratic Party identification compared to other major cities nationwide."

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Read more: https://jaxtoday.org/2025/06/03/unf-poll-shows-support-for-sheriff-and-mayor-but-less-for-city-council/

[Ken_FSU]

This is exactly why all the political attacks and nonsense on the other side are self-defeating. The average Jacksonville citizen likes Donna and thinks she's doing a good job leading the city. Attacking a well-liked, largely popular leader doesn't make them look bad. It makes you look bad.

[jaxlongtimer]

This is exactly why all the political attacks and nonsense on the other side are self-defeating. The average Jacksonville citizen likes Donna and thinks she's doing a good job leading the city. Attacking a well-liked, largely popular leader doesn't make them look bad. It makes you look bad.

Citizens also hate partisan gridlock where absolutely nothing good gets done and any decisions that are actually made are bad ones because they are made out of spite, not good common sense.

Instead of looking for cooperation, collaboration and compromise, the majority of our Council likes to build walls, roadblocks, obstacles and land mines and has become the voice of "no" and "never."  This does nothing to better anyone's lot, especially theirs.