Lori Hershey ends campaign for House District 16 seat

Lori Hershey is no longer listed as a House candidate.

Lori Hershey, a member of the Duval County School Board, has ended her campaign for the Florida House.

A review of the state Division of Elections page no longer shows her as running in House District 16.

Hershey had sought to replace outgoing Rep. Jason Fischer, a Republican who himself had emerged from that same school board. But fundraising never materialized, and the district will be radically remapped in redistricting ahead of the 2022 elections.

Hershey had expected to run a campaign branded on being a known presence in her district, in contrast to the newly arrived Adam Brandon, a lawyer with Rogers Towers and the only remaining candidate in the current HD 16 field.

Hershey reported no financial activity to her campaign account in November and raised roughly $4,000 in the last three months. Her political committee hadn’t raised money since June. By contrast, Brandon continued to fundraise and has $130,000 on hand.

Hershey could run for a local office in 2023 with Jacksonville City Council seats open. Hershey did not respond to a Florida Politics inquiry about her next steps. With her term on the School Board not slated to end until 2024, she theoretically could bide her time before any decision.

Despite difficulties with her state House campaign, Hershey has been successful in two elections.

In 2020, she won a non-partisan Primary for re-election with more than 50% of the vote, closing out the election in August. In 2016, Hershey and another candidate emerged from a seven-person field, with Hershey getting nearly 57% of the vote in the General Election.

Brandon will be subject to the new maps, yet he intends to run somewhere this cycle. He had already moved to the HD 16 race from the HD 12 Primary.

But if he is drawn into the new HD 12 again, he could oppose Wyman Duggan, the incumbent from what is now HD 15, who looks likely to be in that same new district, which could span the St. Johns River. Duggan and Brandon are both with Rogers Towers, so it seems unlikely they would run against one another.