What to Know
Former President Joe Biden definitely took notice that a Democrat flipped a Florida statehouse district seat that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.
The Daily Mail reports that Biden placed a call on Wednesday to Emily Gregory, the Democrat who won a special election in West Palm Beach that turned a red seat blue in the Florida House of Representatives.
Gregory defeated Republican Jon Maples, who was backed by Trump in the race. Trump won the district by 11 points when he won the presidency in 2024.
With nearly all the votes counted, Gregory led Maples by 2.4 percentage points, or 797 votes, the Associated Press said.
The call from Biden to Gregory was congratulatory in nature.
The former president typically gives out his phone number on such calls and tells rising Democrats that they can use him as a resource in his role as an elder statesman of the Democratic Party.
Biden also phoned Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary last week.
Stratton was in a three-way race with battle two members of Congress but had the backing and financial support of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
With Illinois a reliably blue state, Stratton is expected to win the coveted Senate seat in November. The seat was vacated by retiring Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin.
Biden also reached out to Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the winner of the Texas Democratic Senate primary earlier this month.
Biden, a former two-term vice president under President Barack Obama, dropped out of the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Trump went on to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election to take the White House for a second time.
Tom Wrobleski; Staten Island Advance, N.Y.; (TNS) || © 2026 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
