Kim Daniels demolishes 2 Primary opponents

Rep. Kim Daniels. Image via AG Gancarski

Rep. Kim Daniels has dispatched two Democratic Primary opponents in House District 14, leaving just a write-in opponent between her and a return to the House.

Daniels, an evangelist by trade who often finds herself at odds with the mainstream of her party on social issues, overpowered Lloyd Caulker and Therese V. Wakefield-Gamble on Tuesday night.

She got 64% in the three-person contest, winning all but one precinct, which Wakefield-Gamble won two votes to one.

The main drama of the campaign came via Wakefield-Gamble, a 53-year-old entrepreneur and grandmother from the Northside of Jacksonville who was endorsed by Florida Planned Parenthood PAC, the Florida Democratic Party’s “American Muslim Caucus,” and Democratic House candidate Ben Sandlin, who will be on the November ballot against Rep. Wyman Duggan.

Wakefield-Gamble was also backed by the 90 for 90 group, in another sign that some establishment Democrats are ready to move on from Daniels, an evangelist who calls herself the “Demon Buster.”

Daniels is in the middle of her third term in the House. She was originally elected to serve HD 14 in 2016, was re-elected in 2018, and lost in 2020’s Democratic Primary to current Rep. Angie Nixon. After Nixon was moved to HD 13 during 2022’s redistricting, Daniels won a four-way Primary to return to Tallahassee.