Florida Democrats flipped two legislative seats Tuesday night in their biggest election night in years.
In the shocker of the night, Democrat Brian Nathan defeated Republican Josie Tomkow in the Senate District 14 race by 408 votes.
In the only state Senate election on the ballot, Democrat Brian Nathan, a Navy veteran, union organizer, and first-time candidate, shocked Republican state Rep. Josie Tomkow in the Hillsborough County Senate District 14 contest, winning by just 408 votes, taking 50.25% of the vote to Tomkow’s 49.75%.
The seat has been vacant since August, when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed GOP incumbent Jay Collins to serve as his lieutenant governor.
Tomkow had a huge fundraising lead over Nathan and was a heavy favorite in a district that Collins won by 10 points in 2022, the last time the seat was on the ballot. Donald Trump won it by more than 7 points in 2024.
In the Palm Beach County House District 87 race that includes Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, Democrat Emily Gregory, a first-time candidate with a public-health background, defeated Republican financial adviser Jon Maples, 51%-49%, in a district that Trump won by more than 10 points in 2024.
The third race was in House District 51 in very red northern Polk County, a seat made vacant after Tomkow resigned early to run for the state Senate District 14 seat.
There was little drama there, as Republican Hilary Holley, executive director of an agriculture nonprofit organization, defeated Democrat Edwin Pérez by eight percentage points, 54%-46%. That district went for Donald Trump in 2024 by more than 13 percentage points.