PALM BEACH, Fla.—President Donald Trump just lost a state House seat in his own backyard, literally. Progressive Democrat Emily Gregory, a young public health professional, won a special election for that seat in the district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Gregory was one of two notable Democratic winners in special elections in the Sunshine State on March 24. In Hillsborough County (Tampa), Brian Nathan, a Local 915 Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer and a Navy veteran, won a state senate seat. Both triumphed in GOP strongholds.
Their wins continue a pattern that lasted all through last year and has continued in 2026. It shows voters want candidates who stand up for progressive values and say so.
In election after election, from U.S. House races in Virginia and governorships there and in New Jersey, to the New York City mayor’s race last fall and the Illinois U.S. Senate Democratic nomination on March 17, progressive candidates who were unafraid to take strong stands won—often against much better-financed right-wing foes.
In the Tampa area, Nathan beat GOP State Rep. Josie Tomkow by 408 votes for an open seat there for the months remaining in a four-year state senate term. He succeeds a GOP incumbent, now lieutenant governor, who won re-election in 2022 by 10 percentage points.
Gregory and Nathan won with around 51% each. Both seats were local GOP strongholds. Trump won Gregory’s state House district by 11 percentage points in 2024 over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Gregory’s GOP predecessor won re-election by 19 points.
Both Nathan and Gregory are new faces, as first-time candidates. So was Machinists Texas State President Taylor Rehmet. He won by double digits in a state senate seat in Fort Worth that Trump carried by 17 points. The GOP had held that seat since 1979. Rehmet also ran on a progressive platform, including aid to public schools and health care for all.
Gregory’s win, literally in Trump’s backyard, drew international attention from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Both Gregory and Nathan were outspent by their GOP opponents, but the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the PAC for the party’s state legislative candidates nationally, helped Gregory. She beat a financial consultant, Jon Maples.
Nathan won a purple district that includes part of Democratic-leaning Tampa but also its GOP-leading suburbs. Both picked up the endorsement of the Florida AFL-CIO and of groups representing LGBTQ people and voters of color.
Nathan added endorsements from IBEW and the Hillsborough County Teachers Association. Editorials of both major newspapers in Gregory’s district, the Palm Beach Post and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, backed her. So did the Palm Beach AFL-CIO and the Service Employees.
Both also ran on putting people over politics. Gregory blasted what she called rampant corruption in the state capital of Tallahassee, blaming it on donors whose campaign dollars affect lawmakers.
Gregory also noted 11% of Floridians are uninsured, a figure that will only worsen with Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. “Health care is a human right,” Gregory declared on her site.
And in a state with some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the U.S., she’s pro-choice. “I want to write Roe v Wade into law,” she says of the pro-abortion national constitutional protection which the right-wing GOP U.S. Supreme Court majority killed in 2022. That left abortion protection to the states.
And Gregory linked lack of health care, and affordability—or lack of it—in high-cost southeastern Florida to political corruption by corporate donors.
“The corruption tax in Tallahassee is one we’re all paying with skyrocketing costs and wages that can’t keep up,” her website says. “It is wrong for politicians to do the bidding of the corporate elite donors who are funding their campaigns while families and seniors who have worked hard are still finding it hard to pay the bills each month.
“We need elected leaders who work for us, to lower our costs, raise our wages, and provide hardworking Floridians with tools we need to build a brighter future for ourselves and our families.”
She also wants to fully fund Florida’s public schools and their teachers. She calls vouchers—a favorite tool of the radical right, including Trump and GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis—a backdoor subsidy for the rich.
Nathan hit many of the same themes. He also emphasized bringing “good-paying jobs with strong labor protections” to Florida. The right-to-work (for less) state is one of the least-unionized in the U.S., federal calculations show: 5.4% or 503,000 unionists last year, up 41,000 (0.3%) from 2024.
“I put on the uniform and served this country” for 16 years, “and I’ve been working as an electrician and IBEW member for years,” Nathan said on his website. “I know what it’s like to work for a living and worry about making ends meet.
“Too many politicians in Tallahassee have never gotten their hands dirty or missed a paycheck. I’m running because working families need someone who understands and will fight for them.
“It’s time to demand decent wages, take care of our veterans, and quit playing games with people’s lives. I’m running because working families need someone who understands and will fight for them.”
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