Trump on shaky ground after Democrats win Mar-a-Lago seat
Donald Trump is now represented by a Democrat in his home district in Florida, after a massive swing in a by-election today.
Emily Gregory claimed an upset win in the typically conservative state house seat in Palm Beach County, which includes Trump's country club Mar-a-Lago.
Gregory will replace Mike Caruso, a Republican who had represented the area since 2018. He won his last election in the seat by 19 points.
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Donald Trump is now represented by a Democrat in the state house. AP
Caruso resigned the seat to take up another position in local government.
Trump himself had won the district by 10 points.
The president voted in today's election by mail, a method he is pushing to ban.
He also urged his supporters to turn out to vote for Republican Jon Maples.
"TO ALL GREAT PATRIOTS IN FLORIDA STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 87: GET OUT AND VOTE FOR JON MAPLES!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Maples campaigned as a Trump ally, even holding an event at Mar-a-Lago.
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Emily Gregory is Donald Trump's new representative in Florida. Emily Gregory
Gregory ran on a platform focused on affordability, a key issue for voters.
Elsewhere in Florida, Democratic candidate Brian Nathan also narrowly edged the Republican in a conservative Senate seat.
Up until recently, Florida has been the key swing state in presidential elections.
But the state has swung hard to Trump in the past eight years.
Today's election results indicate that even in his strongest turf, Trump is not popular.
An Ipsos poll released today showed just 36 per cent of voters approved of Trump.
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Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
If voters in the rest of the country swung to Democrats at the same rate as they did in Florida today, the Republicans would be absolutely trounced.
Every House of Representatives seat and a third of Senate seats will be up for election this November.
The party in the White House has a long history of losing seats in midterm elections.
Republicans hold an edge of just a handful of seats in both chambers.
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