St. Johns Sheriff’s campaign workers solicit support for re-election on public school grounds, violating policy

St. Johns County incumbent Sheriff Rob Hardwick.

Campaign workers for incumbent St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick violated St. Johns County School District policy after they were found to have been soliciting support from students on school campuses this year.

A complaint was filed with the St. Johns County School District by James Kelly Harrison, a campaign worker for Jim Priester, who is running against Hardwick for Sheriff in the Northeast Florida county. Harrison leveled the complaint in an April email, claiming that two current Sheriff’s employees went to Nease High School in plain clothes seeking signatures of support for the incumbent Hardwick from students on that campus.

“What is known is that once inside the school, they proceeded to solicit students, and likely school employees, to sign petitions in support of current Sheriff Robert Hardwick,” Harrison said in an email complaint to the School District.

“They claimed to have obtained dozens of completed petitions in an effort to allow Robert Hardwick to appear on the ballot for the election on August 20th, 2024, all while on school grounds, during school hours.”

The two Sheriff’s employees are deputies in the Youth Services Division. They include Capt. Peggy Tennyson and Lt. Wes Kennedy.

The complaint was filed with St. Johns County School District Attorney Frank Upchurch, who did look into the allegations. Upchurch found the Hardwick campaign workers did, in fact, violate the District’s policy restricting campaign solicitation of students on public school campuses.

“Senior District staff contacted the officers identified in your email,” Upchurch responded in an email to Harrison.

“They acknowledged they solicited signatures at Nease on April 29 but did not know they were violating district rules. Staff also contacted Sheriff Hardwick’s campaign manager and sent her the district’s political activity guidelines for future reference. The officers and the campaign manager apologized and assured that it would not happen again.”

Upchurch advised he also contacted Hardwick directly and the Sheriff said he was unaware of any such campaign activity on the Nease campus. According to Upchurch, Hardwick was apologetic and advised none of his campaign workers or deputies would repeat the action.