Donna Deegan ‘100%’ with Joe Biden, but wants Kamala Harris if President drops re-election bid

Donna Deegan.

Amid ongoing speculation that Joe Biden will end his re-election campaign in the coming days, the embattled Delaware Democrat is getting a vote of confidence from Jacksonville’s Mayor.

“I’m 100% behind President Biden. What his administration has and continues to invest in Jacksonville’s infrastructure is transformative,” Donna Deegan told Florida Politics.

Deegan referenced federal grants, saying Biden has “sent hundreds of millions of our tax dollars home directly, allowing us to put them to work for our people immediately and we owe him a debt of gratitude.”

These federal distributions run the gamut, from $147 million for the Emerald Trail project to a little more than $845,000 for energy audits.

“Unless I hear differently from him, he is running and I am with him,” Deegan emphasized.

Deegan, elected in 2023, was a notable inclusion in a recent Biden campaign email praising a “Biden-(Kamala) Harris Plan to Lower Housing Costs and Slam Trump for Project 2025 Agenda to Make Housing More Expensive.” But her provided quote in that email focused on the former rather than the Project 2025 concept Democrats are messaging against heavily.

That said, the Duval Democrat has a backup plan in case Biden ultimately isn’t the candidate for her party.

“Should he decide otherwise, I have great faith in Vice President Harris and she is already on the ticket. In my mind she would be the only alternative that would still respect the will of Primary voters,” Deegan said.

Jacksonville’s Mayor has advanced Biden-Harris administration messaging on a couple of visible public occasions since her inauguration last year, including the Vice President’s criticisms of Florida’s Black History education standards in 2023 and the abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy this year. She also appeared with President Biden at a gun violence prevention event in Washington, D.C., last year.