Not Even Mar-a-Lago Is Safe from the Blue Wave

On Tuesday, Dems notched yet another win after first-time candidate Emily Gregory flipped Florida’s “ruby-red” West Palm Beach district, aka the home of Mar-a-Lago, aka Trump’s district. Meaning our MAGA president is currently repped by a rookie Democrat! I! Sure! Wonder! How! That! Happened! 

Gregory, who runs a small business that provides fitness classes for pregnant and postpartum women, defeated the Trump-backed Jon Maples by 2.4%, or 797 votes. Trump cast his vote for (we’re assuming) Maples with a mail-in ballot, despite calling mail-in voting “mail-in cheating” just a day earlier.

The state House seat has been vacant since August, when former state Rep. Mike Caruso (R-Delray Beach) resigned to become the Palm Beach County clerk and comptroller. Florida’s District 87 went +11 for Trump in November 2024. 

Speaking in her victory speech, Gregory said, “When we started this, nobody thought it was possible…I knew my community. I knew we deserved better. We deserve a leader who will fight for us.” Speaking to CNN after the polls closed, she added that Trump was “not a factor” in her campaign, even though he’d given Maples his “complete and total endorsement” in January. Unbothered. Love it.

“If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November,” President Heather Williams of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee told the Associated Press. “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.”

Also in the Sunshine State on Tuesday, another rookie Dem, Brian Nathan, eked out a win against state Rep. Josie Tomkow (R)—winning a seat left vacant by former state Sen. Jay Collins (R), who was tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to become lieutenant governor in August. Despite every other poll projecting otherwise, Nathan won by just a half percentage gap.