WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Emily Gregory won a Florida special election on Tuesday, flipping a district that is home to Mar-a-Lago, the West Palm Beach estate that President Donald Trump counts as his residence.
The Republican president had endorsed Gregory’s rival, Jon Maples. In a social media post Monday, he urged voters to turn out, saying Maples was backed “by so many of my Palm Beach County friends.”
Democrats celebrated the victory as the latest
sign voters are turning against Trump and the GOP ahead of the midterm elections in November. Democrats have notched a series of lopsided or improbable victories in special elections across the country since Trump returned to the White House more than a year ago.
Republican Mike Caruso, who resigned from the seat to become Palm Beach County’s clerk, won the Florida state House district by 19 percentage points in 2024.
“If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. She said it is the 29th seat that Democrats have flipped from GOP control since Trump took office.
“Gas prices are spiking, grocery costs are up, and families can’t get by — it’s clear voters at the polls are fed up with Republicans,” Williams said.
With almost all votes counted, Gregory led by 2.4 percentage points, or 797 votes.
Gregory's win marked at least the second time in the last four months that Democrats scored a notable win in Republican-led Florida. In December, Democrat Eileen Higgins won the race for Miami mayor, the first time the party had won the seat in nearly three decades. She defeated a Trump-endorsed Republican in a campaign that leaned heavily into criticism of the president’s immigration crackdown, a message that resonated with the city’s large Hispanic population.
