TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow will be Tallahassee’s next mayor after edging former state Sen. Loranne Ausley on Tuesday in the city’s costliest and most closely watched local race of the year.
Matlow took about 51 percent of the vote and finished roughly 1,300 votes ahead. He replaces Mayor John Dailey, who chose not to run again, and will take the oath on Nov. 16 at the commission’s reorganization meeting.
The result reshapes City Hall. P.J. Perez, whom Matlow backed, won the Seat 3 commission race, so Matlow, Perez and Commissioner Jack Porter now form a three-vote bloc. That ends the 3-2 split that had long left the progressive wing in the minority and hands it the working majority it has chased for years.
A local business owner, Matlow has held a commission seat since 2018. He ran on curbing developer influence at City Hall, bringing down utility costs and steering infrastructure money toward neighborhood needs. Matlow was also against the plan to put Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare under the control of Florida State University.
Money flowed heavily into the contest. Ausley’s campaign raised more than $600,000 and Matlow’s more than $300,000, not counting outside political committees that spent on either side.
Speaking to supporters at Proof Brewing Company, Matlow called for the community to come back together after a bruising campaign. He said he would gather commissioners to compare the priorities they heard from voters and shape an agenda from them, and he invited past critics to work with the new majority.
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