Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election Tuesday for the Florida state House district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, flipping the seat from Republican control, The Associated Press projects.
Gregory beat Republican Jon Maples, whom Trump endorsed, in the race for a seat that has been vacant since August, when Mike Caruso resigned from the Legislature and was appointed Palm Beach County clerk.
Gregory had 51% of the vote to 49% for Maples with all precincts reporting.
Democrats have performed well in special elections during Trump’s second term, with the party pointing to those results as a sign of strength ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Florida’s 87th District is the 10th GOP-held state legislative seat Democrats have flipped around the country since Trump took office again last year. Republicans have not flipped any Democratic state legislative seats during that time.
Trump carried this Florida legislative district by about 11 percentage points in 2024, according to The Downballot, a left-leaning political site that tracks special elections.
And winning on Trump’s literal home turf carries special significance for Democrats.
"Democrats can run and win anywhere — including Donald Trump’s backyard," Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said in a joint statement with the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.
Some of the most significant events of Trump’s second term have taken place at Mar-a-Lago, including the direction of six major military actions — most recently the start of the war with Iran.
Trump cast a ballot in the special election and backed Maples, a former council member in Lake Clarke Shores, in both the special primary and the special general election, exhorting social media followers to turn out to vote. Gregory, a business owner, was running for office for the first time.
Her campaign keyed in on rising costs and promised that she would focus on the issue if she was elected. Maples touted his business experience and pledged to cut taxes.
The Palm Beach County race was one of three legislative special elections on the ballot around Florida on Tuesday, with a fourth decided by default after the Republican candidate ran unopposed.
One of the races is still too close to call: Democrat Brian Nathan is leading Republican Josie Tomkow by less than half a percentage point with nearly all of the vote counted in a Tampa-area state Senate district previously held by the GOP.
Republican Hilary Holley also held a state House seat in Central Florida for her party.
The special elections are taking place as Trump’s approval rating sits in the high 30s to the low 40s in most public polling, which has influenced elections throughout the U.S. over the past year. Americans also have largely taken a dim view of the war with Iran in public polling, as it has dominated media coverage of the Trump administration for a month now.
