{"id":64094,"date":"2026-03-25T01:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64094"},"modified":"2026-03-25T01:01:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:01:51","slug":"florida-democrats-flip-two-seats-in-special-legislative-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/25\/florida-democrats-flip-two-seats-in-special-legislative-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Democrats flip two seats in special legislative elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a major upset on Tuesday night, March 24, 2026, Florida Democrats successfully flipped two<\/strong> Republican-held seats in special legislative elections. These victories are being hailed by the party as a significant bellwether for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, particularly as one of the seats includes the residence of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The Key Flips<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Florida House District 87 (Palm Beach County)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The Winner:<\/strong> Democrat Emily Gregory<\/strong>, a small-business owner and first-time candidate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Loser:<\/strong> Republican Jon Maples<\/strong>, who was personally endorsed by President Trump.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Context:<\/strong> This district is home to Mar-a-Lago<\/strong>. The seat was vacated after Republican Mike Caruso was appointed as Palm Beach County Clerk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Swing:<\/strong> Gregory won by approximately 2.4 percentage points (about 797 votes). This marks a massive shift from 2024, when the GOP won the district by 19 points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. Florida Senate District 14 (Hillsborough\/Polk Area)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • The Winner:<\/strong> Democrat Brian Nathan<\/strong>, a Navy veteran<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The Loser:<\/strong> Republican Josie Tomkow<\/strong>, a sitting State Representative who had been favored to win.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The Context:<\/strong> The seat became vacant after Jay Collins was tapped to serve as Lieutenant Governor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The Swing:<\/strong> Nathan won by a razor-thin margin of 408 votes (roughly 0.5%). Despite Republican turnout outstripping Democratic turnout in early voting, Nathan captured a significant share of non-partisan and swing voters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      Why This Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Symbolism:<\/strong> Flipping the district containing the President\u2019s own home is a high-profile morale boost for Democrats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        In a major upset on Tuesday night, March 24, 2026, Florida Democrats successfully flipped two Republican-held seats in special legislative elections. These victories are being hailed by the party as… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"15","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTE5LndlYnA_Zml0PTMxOCUyQzE1OSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgRGVtb2NyYXRzIGZsaXAgdHdvIHNlYXRzIGluIHNwZWNpYWwgbGVnaXNsYXRpdmUgZWxlY3Rpb25zIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.BM0QwCN2ZRO7vBWrE7j3dZ09JRcwUZVjJ2fVNGC8ktkMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[14187],"class_list":["post-64094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-florida-democrats-flip-two-seats-in-special-legislative-elections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64096,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64094\/revisions\/64096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}