Emily Gregory describes the days following her upset victory in Tuesday’s special election as “a little overwhelming, surreal, but exciting.”
Gregory flipped a heavily red Florida House seat blue. But the reason she garnered so much national attention for her victory is that her opponent not only received the endorsement of President Donald Trump, but the president voted for him, because that district includes Mar-a-Lago.
After her win, she has received congratulatory phone calls from Democrats across the country, including former President Joe Biden.
She explained what drove her to get involved: “I felt that the leadership in Tallahassee and the legislature was not listening to us. I felt they were very distracted on culture war issues and not solving the very real affordability issues that us average Floridians are struggling with, like property insurance and health care and education. And that is the only reason that I’m interested in running, is trying to find solutions to these big, big affordability issues.”
Even though she was running in Trump’s district, she decided not to make Trump the issue in her campaign. Rather than focus on the most famous resident of her district she said she stayed focused on the 180,000 other people who live there.
“All constituents are equal and I want to serve the greatest number of the greatest good with good policy,” she said.
It was a race that few gave her a chance of winning, but Gregory said she decided to run anyway. In a conversation for Facing South Florida, she had this advice for anyone thinking about getting into politics.
“I think you have to do some soul searching, knowing that this will probably be the hardest thing you ever do,” she said. “I can’t undersell that. It was all-consuming. And then you just believe in yourself. It started with me, my husband, and a couple of friends sitting around a kitchen table being like, `What if we just try? What if you just do it? If we don’t like what we’re seeing out of the state house, what if we just give it our best shot?’ And I think that’s the only way the world’s ever changed is a small group of people. Who were dedicated and passionate. It’s one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Mead. And that’s the only thing that’s ever changed the world. So, we just, we just did the thing.”
