Democrat Gregory wins Florida bypoll seat in Trump’s home turf; Republicans suffer setback
New York, March 26 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) A Democrat has wrested away from President Donald Trump’s Republican Party his Florida state legislature home constituency in a by-election.
In a setback to the Republicans, Emily Gregory carried in Tuesday’s by-election the state House of Representatives seat where Trump had led by 11 per cent in the 2024 election.
Trump’s home, Mar-a-Lago, is located in the constituency where she won.
“Floridians deserve leaders who put people over politics”, Gregory said.
A critic of postal ballots, Trump himself voted by mail in the election.
The Republican candidate, Jon Maples, was endorsed by Trump.
The vacancy occurred when the Republican Mike Caruso, who won the seat by 19 per cent in 2024, quit to become the county clerk and comptroller for a local municipality.
Republicans also lost a Florida state Senate by-election to Democrat Brian Nathan, who flipped the seat.
Gregory said that the voters were motivated by concerns over the rising prices, an issue that is affecting citizens as the effects of Iran War is seeping into petrol stations and supermarkets, exacerbating an existing affordability problem.
Setting the scene for the coming showdown in the midterm elections in November, the state Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said, “Floridians are tired of the chaos, corruption, and sky high prices on everything from groceries, to gas, and health care”.
That is a problem for the Republican Party as the country heads to the mid-term elections in November that would determine the control of Congress.
Politico reported that Democrats have seized 28 Republican-held seats in state legislatures in elections across the country over the past 14 months.
Meanwhile, US lawmakers warned of mounting pressure on American weapons stockpiles and a rapidly deteriorating global nuclear landscape, as a Senate hearing exposed sharp concerns over the Trump administration’s war with Iran and the future of arms control.
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Ranking Member Senator Jeanne Shaheen said the pace of weapons consumption has exposed serious gaps in planning and strategy.
“Last Thursday, almost three weeks into this war against Iran, the Administration pushed through more than 16 billion dollars in arms sales to the Middle East… using emergency authority to bypass normal Congressional review,” she said.
Shaheen described the situation as a “munitions and weapons” emergency, warning that US reserves are being depleted rapidly. “In some cases, we have only about a quarter of the interceptors we need,” she said, adding that it remains “not clear what the end goal of the war in Iran is.”
The strain is already affecting other conflicts. “US support has become less predictable, and allies are increasingly stepping in to purchase or backfill American-made arms,” she said, referring to Ukraine.
Shaheen said that “over 80 per cent of their strikes are now carried out by drones,” highlighting a shift toward “autonomous systems and drone swarms.” However, she cautioned, “the support that we have in the US is not keeping pace.”
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