- Former Hawthorne Mayor and Commissioner Jacquelyn Randall will head to Tallahassee as the new Florida representative for House District 21, covering southeast Alachua County and northwest Marion Count
- Randall connected with both rural and urban voters, drawing on her experience as Hawthorne mayor and navigating voter engagement in diverse communities.
Former Hawthorne Mayor and Commissioner Jacquelyn Randall will head to Tallahassee as the new Florida representative for House District 21, covering southeast Alachua County and northwest Marion County.
With incumbent state Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, stepping down, five Democratic Party candidates qualified to replace her in one of the limited minority party seats.
The race proved to be one of the most competitive in North Central Florida. Because it was a universal primary (with all voters participating and not just the registered party members), Randall won the seat with only 27.7% of the vote. Antione Fields followed closely with 26.7% of the vote, with just 174 votes separating them.
Xavier Monroe finished third with 18%, then Malik Moore with 17% and Sylvain Doré with 9%.
Randall will be the first rural representative for the area in decades. She said she was still able to connect with urban voters in Gainesville and their concerns with the recent Gainesville Regional Utilities tug-of-war.
She said she was authentic with those voters, and while the Gainesville utility issue isn’t her biggest passion, Randall said it connects with struggles she faced as Hawthorne’s mayor.
“But obviously, I have the passion for Home Rule and what it feels like for that authority to be stripped as a mayor,” Randall said.
In Hawthorne, she said knocking on doors takes two or three days, but for the state race, it was months of planning, coordinating and talking with voters. She said engaging voters in rural areas means stopping at a watermelon stand or going to somebody’s family reunion.
Randall joined the Hawthorne City Commission in 2019, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandfather. Over the years, she said she’s reached political maturity from being in office, but that took time.
“I think a lot of times I felt defeated, and I didn’t have to,” Randall said. “It was just a part of the process, and now I understand that some of these things naturally come to the territory.”
Randall said the universal primary format was odd for her, especially after she received unsolicited endorsements from Republicans. She said that caused some concern from her constituents and was used as ammunition against her campaign.
“That’s probably one of the saddest pieces. When voters get an authentic candidate that truly knows how to service both sides of the aisle, you get tarnished for that,” Randall said.