Kim Daniels, the Worst Democrat In Florida, might win her primary

Posted on by Matthew Isbell

On August 28th, voters will go to the polls in Florida to cast votes in the primary election.   The Gubernatorial primary and a slew of congressional primaries are dominating the news.  In an era where a politician can lose a primary for either being “not conservative enough” or “not liberal enough” – despite no other scandals – it is a shame to see one Florida politician appearing to escape serious threat:  Kim Daniels.

Who is Kim Daniels?   She is is the Democratic State Representative for House District 14, which is based out of Jacksonville.  Before this, she was on the Jacksonville City Council.  Kim Daniels has amassed a long list of controversies.  She is the pastor of her own church (she actually calls herself an Apostle) and in addition to several questionable business practices, is known to be a very conservative, fringe politician.  Her personal profiteering from her ministry has generated more headlines in recent years. Meanwhile, her attacks on Jews and LGBT people have been well documented for years.  Despite being an African-American woman, she has actually defended slavery.

Daniels has written several books, all filled with outlandish claims of demonic possession, exorcism, prosperity Gospel, and claims of supernatural fortune telling.  I actually purchased one of her books, “The Demon Dictionary” , early this year.  It is quiet the trip.

Despite scandals and controversial views, Daniels has managed to hang on to office.  In addition, despite facing a primary this year, her chances of winning are fairly high.  How can this be?  So many other politicians lose for so much less, how can Daniels hang on?  I delve into her career in this article.

Controversy after Controversy

Kim Daniels’ controversies are so numerous and span so many campaigns it was honestly hard to keep track of.  Rather than litter the article with links, I have compiled all the big hits here.  I broke them down into scandals and controversial views

Scandals/Ethics

  • Routinely failed to disclose numerous properties and income in Financial disclosures during time on city council.
  • A bitter divorce a few years ago revealed how Kim Daniels’ church improperly spent money and the church was used for personal enrichment.  Homes she and her husband lived in were owned by the church but not properly disclosed.  This whole article from the link is a wild ride and impossible to sum up here.
  • She has received over $200,000 in income from her ministry service
  • Transferred more than $1.3 million in property from herself to her church to make it tax exempt
  • Florida Ethics Commission has found probably cause that she didn’t properly list assets/debts on financial disclosure forms

Controversial views

  • She posted on Facebook that Hurricane Irma hitting Florida in 2017 was “God’s will” and claimed that prophets like herself were warned ahead of time about the danger.
  • She has called for re-instituting prayer and religious expression in schools
  • She was adamantly opposed to a Human Rights Ordinance while on the JAX city council, and has preached against homosexuality for years
  • She has “performed exorcisms” at her church
  • Was face of GOP effort to put “In God We Trust” in Schools – and claimed that such moves would deter school shootings (said shortly after the Parkland massacre).
  • She said during one sermon –

“I thank God for slavery.  If it wasn’t for slavery, I might be somewhere in Africa worshiping a tree.”

  • In another sermon, she said –

“You can talk about the Holocaust, but the Jews own everything!

Some of these views are a mixture of being outside the Democratic Party mainstream (like prayer in schools) while others (like the claims about Hurricane Irma) are just outside of basic sanity.  Daniels frequently references demons and possessions in her sermons.  She has claimed to have been attacked by demons on numerous instances and frequently performs “exorcisms” in her church.

2011 Election

Kim Daniels ran for public office for the first time in 2011.  She filed to run for the open seat for Jacksonville City Council At-Large Seat 1.  This covered all of Duval County.   She was already known to some, doing a Christian radio program in the city in addition to her church work and books.  Her main opponent was Republican lawyer David Taylor.  Daniels already has a laundry list of controversial views and statements.  Her infamous quip about the “Jews run everything’ was already well documented.  Daniels benefited in this election from two events.

First, her Republican opponent had flaws.  Taylor was being investigated for threatening a woman who was divorcing a client of his.  In addition, accusations of using unlicensed contractors for a home construction dogged his campaign.  Republicans were heavily focused on the mayoral campaign and Taylor became more of an afterthought.

Second, no other democrat ran.  Democrats focused all their energy that election in trying to win the office of Mayor.  That race became a major money fight.  Daniels got no other Democratic candidate, probably as Democrats expected her to just flame out and lose.

Third, evangelical groups backed Daniels.  Faced with a newcomer from the GOP establishment, many prominent evangelicals and groups backed Daniels.  The idea that Daniels wasn’t really a Democrat seemed clear to these groups.  They spent money on mailers for her and she even got the backing of famous and controversial pastor John Hagee.

Fourth, the efforts by Democrats in Duval, as well as heavy investment from the Florida Democratic party, pushed Democrats to be the largest share of the vote cast in recent history.  Democrats wound up making up 48% of the votes cast, a feat that didn’t occur in 2008 or after.

When election night came, all the focus was on the Mayoral election.   Alvin Brown, an African-American who was a former Clinton administration official, pulled off an historic upset over Mike Hogan; who the GOP had heavily invested in.

Jacksonville/Duval is a large county with many unique neighborhoods.  Brown won by dominating in African-American heavy Northside and Downtown.  His solid wins in white/liberal Riverside and respectable showings in Southside/Arlington/Beaches were key to victory.

That same night, Daniels pulled off a narrow win over Taylor.  She also dominated in African-American zone but did far worse in liberal-aligned Riverside.

Despite the similar win %, Daniels and Brown did not see their votes line up perfectly.  Brown drastically over-performed Daniels in the Riverside, Dowtown, and Beaches community.  Daniels, meanwhile, did better in the socially-conservative Westside and the rural northern communities.

Daniels’ win reflected her stronger support with social conservatives and her weaker standing with liberals and suburban communities that took offense to her statements.

2015 Loss

Daniels’ time on the council was filled with controversy; much of it relating to her work outside the council.  One of the biggest issues before the Jacksonville City Council during her tenure was the Human Rights Ordinance – aimed to protect the LGBT community from discrimination.  The ordinance was desired by both liberal groups and GOP-aligned businesses.  Brown privately opposed the ordinance and did little to help push it forward.  Daniels, meanwhile, was outspoken against it.   When the 2015 election cycle came around, Brown was facing a tough challenge from former Republican Party of Florida Chair, Lenny Curry.  Brown did not receive support from the city and state LGBT community; who remained neutral in the election.  Brown did not have as strong of Democratic turnout as he did in 2011 and fell short in re-election.

Brown’s re-election troubles were analyzed by myself in this article.   A summary of it is that Brown ran too far to the right while Mayor and managed to upset the liberal community while not securing support from the right-of-center community (who wound up going to Curry).

Daniels, meanwhile, was trounced in re-election.  She only secured 45%, winning just in the African-American community.  Financial scandals and her abrasive nature hurt her already-damaged reputation.  Her Republican opponent actually secured the support of LGBT groups and received larger shares of white liberal votes thanks to her implicit support for a Human Rights Ordinance.

It is notable that Riverside was solidly in Brosche’s camp, even though it voted for Brown that same night.

The night was not a loss for Democrats in Duval.  The At-Large Council 3 spot was won by Tommy Hazouri, a popular Democrat who was a steadfast Human Rights Ordinance backer.  He defeated a very conservative Republican.

Comparing Hazouri, the highest polling Democrat, with Daniels, almost every precinct was stronger for him.  However, we see that the more conservative westside was nearly the same between the two.  Daniels even outperformed in a few precincts.  The closer margins in African-American communities are no surprise, as this block was already almost entirely Democratic.

Daniels’ loss was actually largely celebrated by liberal democrats in the county.  A moderate Republican had won and for many that was considered a strong improvement.  The new council elected would go on to pass a Human Rights Ordinance that Mayor Curry allowed to come into law without his signature.

2016 State House

Sadly, those who were hoping to have Kim Daniels out of their lives were disappointed.  She announced she’d seek the Democratic nomination for HD14; which was going to be open due to term limits.  This is a Safe Democratic seat that is majority African-American.  Daniels has easily won the district in her 2015 loss.  The race featured several heavy hitters, including former State Representative Terry Fields.  However, the two main candidates were trial lawyer Leslie Jean-Bart and Daniels.  Jean-Bart had a good deal of institutional backing and the support of retiring representative Mia Jones.  Daniels self-funded much of her campaign.  Many of Daniels’ controversies shaped the campaign.  Sadly, Daniels actually managed to pull of a plurality win with 36% of the vote.

Daniels went on to win the general election in the Safe-blue seat.

2018 Primary

It seemed Kim Daniels would face no challenge in 2018.  It wasn’t until just before noon, on the last day of qualifying, that Jacksonville School Board Chair Paula Wright filed to run for the seat.  Daniels’ funding for the primary has been boosted by GOP groups and interests.  This includes donations from private prisons, US Sugar, and GOP-aligned PACs.  Meanwhile, Democratic HD13 Rep Tracie Davis and Senate District 6 Incumbent Audrey Gibson have backed Wright.   Wright’s school board seat has strong overlap with House District 14.

One major wrinkle is that this time the primary is open to all voters, not just democrats.  Since no candidate filed for November, the HD14 race will be an open primary.  This will give Republican voters the ability to cast ballots for Daniels (who is almost surely their preferred candidate).  The primary being open increases the white share of the vote and could be up to 40% Republican.  Votes cast in the district for 2016’s August primary are below.

For Wright, the biggest problem is that Republicans are almost surely going to back Daniels due to her being the perfect person to push their socially conservative bills.  Daniels has openly stated to politicos that she is only a Democrat because her area can’t be won by someone with an R next to their name.  Wright needs to somehow dominate with African-American voters and the small share of white liberals (largely concentrated around the outskirts of Riverside).

GOP money has propelled Daniels to $55,000 for the campaign so far.  Meanwhile, Wright has only managed to raised $15,000.  Liberal interests are not funding Wright the same way conservatives are funding Daniels.  This makes Wright’s chances even tougher.  She needs more money to thread the needle in an open primary.

Conclusion

The frustrating thing for folks like myself is that Kim Daniels appears set to win re-election despite years of controversy and unacceptable views.  Daniels only got an opponent at the last minute and the primary wasn’t closed, ensuring Republicans could play spoiler in a race between two democrats.  Meanwhile, as conservatives flood in to aid Daniels, liberal aid has been more modest.  The race just does not appear to be on the radar of Florida’s left-wing interests.  State Democrats do not like Daniels at all, yet little effort is being made behind the scenes to aid Wright.  Wright is fighting an underfunded and uphill battle against an incumbent mired in scandal and controversy.  Daniels may well win on August 28th, despite being the least deserving of re-election of any democrat in the state.