JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Attorney Rhonda Peoples Waters won over Duval County Judge Erin Perry in Tuesday night's election, becoming the county's first-ever Black woman elected to the bench and marking the first time a sitting judge has lost an election in Duval in nearly a decade.
Since 2009, Peoples Waters has been selected thirteen times by commissions as a finalist for judicial nominations only to be spurned by governors. She also lost an election for an open seat in 2012.
Earlier this year, she initially filed for an open seat for circuit judge, but that election was canceled and filled by appointment instead. She then filed to run against Perry, a former prosecutor selected by Gov. Rick Scott in January of 2019 as a county judge.
While two other Black women have been appointed as judges in Duval by governors, Peoples Waters is the first Black woman who got onto the bench by election.
Neither Peoples Waters nor Perry criticized each other, and Tuesday night Peoples Waters said she didn't feel she was running against Perry.
"It was never against any specific person," she said. "It was just we knew this was for the people. This was for all of us who wanted to be heard and have a voice and we kept feeling like we were not heard. We were not being chosen. Our voice didn’t matter, even when you look at the JNC [judicial nominating commission], their voice over and over again didn’t matter."
County judges handle misdemeanors, small-claims lawsuits and evictions. These judges also decide whether or not to release defendants awaiting trial. County judges rotate between civil and criminal cases each week.
Leslie Jean-Bart, a civil attorney at Terrell Hogan who supported Peoples Waters, said this election paves the way for more Black attorneys to run against sitting judges or to run in open seats.
"This is by far the most viable option in our current political climate," she said.
Peoples Waters said she believes her election opens the door for more people to run.
This is the first time since 2012 that a sitting judge has lost an election in Duval. The last two times, John Merrett in 2012 and Hugh Fletcher in 2000, were due in part to scandals on the judges' parts. This time, there was no scandal or controversy, but Peoples Waters, who had filed to run for a circuit judgeship only to see the election closed and moved to an appointment, decided to challenge a sitting judge after repeated failures to get Govs. Scott or Ron DeSantis to appoint her to the bench.
Perry, a former prosecutor, received about 42 percent of the vote to Peoples Waters' 58 percent.
Peoples Waters, in her campaign, pointed to her experience as a former assistant public defender and her work in civil and family cases to say she had diverse experience to handle any types of cases that could come before her.