John Phillips (Jacksonville City Council candidate, Florida)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

John Phillips

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

March 21, 2023

Education

Bachelor's

University of Alabama, 1997

Law

University of Alabama School of Law, 2000

Personal

Birthplace

Mobile, Ala.

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Twitter

John Phillips (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Jacksonville City Council to represent District 7 in Florida. He lost in the general election on March 21, 2023.

Phillips completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

John Phillips was born in Mobile, Alabama. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in 1997 and a law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2000.

Elections

2023

See also: City elections in Jacksonville, Florida (2023)

General runoff election

General runoff election for Jacksonville City Council District 7

Jimmy Peluso defeated Joseph Hogan in the general runoff election for Jacksonville City Council District 7 on May 16, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jimmy Peluso (D)	65.1	11,310
	Submit photo	Joseph Hogan (R)	34.9	6,067

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 17,377
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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General election

General election for Jacksonville City Council District 7

Jimmy Peluso and Joseph Hogan advanced to a runoff. They defeated John Phillips, Kim Pryor, and Parrish King in the general election for Jacksonville City Council District 7 on March 21, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jimmy Peluso (D)	34.7	4,942
✔	Submit photo	Joseph Hogan (R)	31.5	4,486
		John Phillips (D)	19.0	2,707
	Submit photo	Kim Pryor (D)	12.3	1,746
	Submit photo	Parrish King (Independent)	2.5	352

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,233
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Phillips's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Phillips in this election.

Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

John Phillips completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Phillips' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a father, husband and community leader. I moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 2001 to start my first job as a lawyer. Over the first decade, I represented large businesses like Coca-Cola, Hertz and JM Family / SE Toyota. I then started my own office, representing people. This expanded from consumer cases and injury cases to civil rights and constitutional law cases. For instance, we represented a client sued by Donald Trump's Campaign after they used an illegal NDA to suppress political speech. We won and received a record attorney fee award as a sanction. From changing laws to corporate policies, we've worked hard to fight for the underserved. I am licensed to practice law in 8 states, but lately my home state and city have undergone major issues with corruption, lack of civility and discord. Our leaders divide us and have become increasingly authoritarian. I decided to run to speak truth to power and stand up for the voiceless.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Murder and crime- If we could make a few changes, we could not only help murder rates, but solve some and raise a community’s self-esteem, which is broken.
• Flooding and Resiliency- When we lost our home in Irma, I was with Erin Brockovich, who is a supporter of my campaign. She explained the consequences of home flooding where there is a large number of septic tanks and toxic sites up stream.
• Corruption. We can’t keep electing the same people and expect different results. If you are constantly worried about pleasing the voters who might not vote for you or donors who might not support you year after year and job after job, you are mislead by secondary gain.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Each step of the way over the last 20 years in Jacksonville have taught me so much about the inequalities and inequities which exist. All of this has put me in a position where I have the network, connections and wisdom to help.

This is the most important case of my life. I need to assemble witnesses and evidence and learn because the City of Jacksonville is suffering. We can go day by day and bring up District 7 and the city as a whole. I know it because we’ve done it out of office.

I know I am different. I know I have been focused on cases and my clients at the expense of being out there trying to become an elected official. I think those are pluses. Not minuses. But I have to do this for my children, and the children who have been murdered.

I have said it over and over, before I owned Folio Weekly and after. The City, She Weeps. We must fight for the disenfranchised and raise up all of those who are suffering. It will help the entire city. If we could just find the pride we have about the Jaguars literally about anything else, but we can’t even speak out about antisemitic hate speech without the necessity of two separate press conferences. We have two MLK breakfasts. We are divided. We can unify.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first real job was clerking for a judge in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama. However, I bartended at a bar called Boo Radley's in law school and worked at TCBY in high school.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

We have many great local and national endorsements. Erin Brockovich, Ben Crump and Congresswoman Lucy McBath have endorsed and are allies. Various unions have endorsed, as has Florida Rising.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2023 Elections

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Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

Jacksonville City Council District 7

Website

Twitter