Florida Democratic candidates are hitting the phones Wednesday to fundraise and the state’s party chair is pushing the Democratic National Committee to lean into Florida after wins during Tuesday’s special elections — including in Donald Trump’s backyard.

Democrat Emily Gregory beat out Trump-endorsed Republican Jon Maples by about 800 votes in the Palm Beach County state House district that includes Mar-a-Lago. Her win marks a wide swing from the Republican who won that seat by 19 points in 2024. Maples was endorsed and promoted by Trump, Congressman Byron Donalds and Attorney General James Uthmeier in the days leading up to the election.

Democrats are also expected to win a Tampa-area state Senate race by a narrow margin to fill the seat vacated by Jay Collins last year when he became Florida’s lieutenant governor. Democrat Brian Nathan was leading former Republican state Rep. Josie Tomkow by half a percentage point after ballots were counted Tuesday.

Florida Democrats are pointing to the wins as evidence the national trends in the party’s favor are even hitting red corners of Florida and hope to use them to fuel the kind of investment in the state that national Democratic committees haven’t prioritized in recent years.

Notably, in both special elections Tuesday, more registered Republicans turned out to vote than Democrats — and Democrats still managed to eke out victories. In both districts, Republicans made up 46% of voters casting ballots and Democrats roughly 37%, turnout reports show. No-party-affiliated voters made up about 15% of ballots cast in each district.

“It still wasn’t enough to stop the flipping from happening and at some point, you gotta look at that as not just angry voters, but voters calling for radical change and a reckoning for Republicans,” said Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster working for Florida gubernatorial candidate David Jolly.

Democrats hope to replicate Tuesday’s performance statewide in November. With a massive voter registration disadvantage in the state, Democrats need independent and Republican voters to support their candidates for any chance of winning statewide.

Florida Democrats attributed Gregory’s win Wednesday to a laser focus on affordability, an argument bolstered by rising gas prices amid Trump’s war with Iran.

“The last thing that Floridians that are already struggling to get by needed was $4 gas,” Gregory told reporters Wednesday.

Florida Democrats have flipped state legislative seats in special elections before and tried to use the win as evidence of momentum, only for the party to lose the seats in a general election when Republicans’ fundraising advantage was in full force.

State party Chair Nikki Fried insisted this year will be different.

“You have seen a tremendous overspending from Republicans. It’s not working. The people of this country are waking up,” she told reporters Wednesday. “They want to feel a campaign. They want the genuineness.”

But even in her optimism, she said the vision for Florida Democrats to claw back power in the state is a long-term one. When asked whether Democrats have any hope of breaking their super minority in the state legislature this year, Fried pointed further out instead.

“We put together a plan for 10 years out. We want to make sure that by the time we get to redistricting — actual legal redistricting — we are, in fact, out of the super minority.” Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed a mid-decade redistricting and scheduled a special legislative session next month. The next normal redistricting cycle is in 2032 after the next census.

Other Democratic strategists too say the state party is pitching a longer-term vision to the national donors getting calls from Florida Democrats today in hopes of boosting their coffers after Tuesday’s over performance.

Democratic consultant Steve Schale said he’s looking to 2032, telling Democrats in D.C. that their only hope of keeping the House after the next census is by winning in Florida — which is expected to take a few Congressional seats from blue states because of its population growth.

The runway to those victories starts now, he said.

“Florida is only going to become more important for Democrats to win majorities in the Congress going forward. And so I would hope that not just state donors, but national donors would see these races and say, ‘Alright, this is why we need to invest in races like this in Florida.’”

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