Florida Democrats hope in special election to flip a state legislative district that includes Mar-a-Lago
By Molly English, Randi Kaye, CNN
(CNN) — Democrats in Florida are hoping to capitalize on the party’s recent special election overperformances and come out on top Tuesday in a special state House election for a Palm Beach district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
It’s an opportunity for Democrats in the ruby-red Sunshine State to notch a win in a state where the party is often short of them. If they win Tuesday night, Mar-a-Lago would be represented by a trio of Democrats across the Florida state House, Senate and US House.
Democrat Emily Gregory, a business owner and military spouse running for office for the first time, will face off against Republican Jon Maples, a former council-member of nearby Lake Shores who first received Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” in January.
“Jon is a very successful Businessman and Civic Leader, who is known and loved,” Trump said in another post on Monday reiterating his endorsement of Maples. “Jon will be a terrific Legislator!”
Some voters in Palm Beach on Tuesday who voted for Maples didn’t know about the endorsement. To some, it made little difference, but one Republican voter, Michelle Hall, told CNN that Trump’s endorsement was “fabulous.”
“Anything Donald does, I do,” Hall said.
It also came as a surprise to some voters that Trump voted by mail in Tuesday’s special election even as he has decried mail-in voting and sought to sharply limit it with the Republican-backed SAVE America Act, which would end the widespread practice of no-excuse mail-in voting.
“Are you kidding me? I had no idea,” Hall said in response a question about it, saying voting by mail “is terrible unless you have a disability, you’re pregnant, you’re in the hospital, you’re military.”
She added, “If he’s against something, why are you doing it?”
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump’s voter ID bill “has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel.”
“As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, DC,” she said. “This is a non-story.”
State House District 87 has been vacant since August of last year, when former Republican state Rep. Mike Caruso, who won reelection in 2024 by 19 percentage points, left the seat to become the Palm Beach County clerk and comptroller. Trump won the district by 11 points during the 2024 presidential election.
Although the shadow of the president looms large in his home district, both Gregory and Maples have largely focused on the issue of affordability, a subject that proved to be successful for Democrats in 2025 elections and one that Republicans have struggled to own during Trump’s second term.
Gregory, in an interview with CNN on Monday, said she was “good about blocking out the noise” about Trump during the campaign, saying she was staying focused on the more than 180,000 residents in her district.
CNN also reached out to Maples’ campaign for an interview but has not heard back.
A string of Democratic wins in special elections
Special elections often feature low turnout, placing an especially high emphasis on voter enthusiasm that can swing results more effectively than in larger elections.
But a win by Gregory would be just one more feather in Democrats’ caps after last year, when they flipped more than 20 state legislative seats in special or regularly scheduled elections.
Since the start of this year, Democrats have flipped seats in Arkansas, New Hampshire and Texas, where they won a state Senate district that had voted for Trump by 17 points in 2024.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Meridith Edwards and Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.
