00:00Emily Gregory went from owning a fitness center for pregnant and postpartum women
00:03to defeating a Trump-backed Republican for state representative.
00:07The special election surprise victory is raising eyebrows not only because she's a Democrat
00:11who won in a conservative district, but because she represents Mar-a-Lago.
00:16And her most famous resident is, of course, President Donald Trump.
00:19Joining us now is Florida State Representative Emily Gregory.
00:22Emily, I understand that you're also a first-time politician.
00:25You've not run for anything before.
00:27What made you want to get involved, and why did you think you could win?
00:31Yes, so this has all been a whirlwind.
00:34I filed last summer, just not happy with the representation we were getting out of Tallahassee.
00:40I felt that for years they have not been focused on the issues my friends and my neighbors and I
00:46are talking about that we need solutions to, and they're focused on distractions.
00:51And I thought, hey, if those dummies can figure it out, why not me?
00:57We need TV, but we can allow dummies.
00:58Yes, go ahead.
01:01Let me ask you about sort of what you did focus on.
01:04You mentioned some of those issues that you and your friends were talking about, indeed cared about.
01:08Christina bringing up perhaps your most famous resident constituent.
01:11How much did you, over the course of the campaign, talk about him, focus on him, address national policies vis
01:18-a-vis him?
01:19How large did Donald Trump loom in the campaign that you waged?
01:23I would say he did not loom large, not because it's not important, but because it's outside the scope of
01:29the statehouse.
01:30And one thing our campaign is very strong on is staying disciplined on the issues.
01:36So, right, you go, I went into the campaign with an idea of what issues were affecting me most.
01:41And I really, really listened in all the conversations we had knocking on doors and at campaign events to what
01:47are the biggest issues at the state level that are affecting District 87 voters.
01:52And we heard housing and health care and public education so that we were laser-focused on those issues.
01:58It's very tempting, especially those of us who call their politics, to extrapolate from one race and try to make
02:03it a trend and try to broaden it out.
02:05But I do wonder, as you look at other Democrats who are struggling to make gains or break through,
02:11do you think focusing more on those kitchen table issues and less on the president would be more effective for
02:19the party if they're trying to gain more seats, especially in the midterms?
02:23I can say it was the successful formula for me, and it just makes sense, right?
02:29Things that are abstract and don't impact your day-to-day life are just not going to have as much
02:35of an impact on your decision-making.
02:37And we don't have the final numbers, but it looks like a large number of independents and a really significant
02:43number of Republicans also voted for me,
02:45as well as, you know, large support across political parties.
02:49And I'm very proud of that because that was my theory of the case going into this, was that most
02:55people I talk to, regardless of their political stripe, were talking about the same things.
03:00We were talking about property insurance.
03:01We were talking about, you know, the skyrocketing cost of health care.
03:05We were talking about our public schools being gutted.
03:08So those really – it's not a partisan slant, and I don't think railing against something is as successful as,
03:17you know, defining what you're for.
03:19Can we pull back lastly, and I think we could focus on the patio at Mar-a-Lago and the
03:24wealth that exists in some parts of the district that you represent,
03:27but maybe you could kind of introduce viewers and listeners who don't know it to a wider audience.
03:33What is your district like, and sort of what are the principal challenges that you see it facing here in
03:38the year ahead?
03:40Yeah, thank you for asking.
03:41So it runs down the coast.
03:43There's a population at the center at the top.
03:45So Jupiter is where I live, Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm, Juneau.
03:50So it's kind of like a circle up there, and then skinny, skinny, skinny all the way down the coast
03:54to Manalapan and Hypoluxo,
03:57which is actually very large distance-wise for a statehouse district with some carve-outs to include downtown West Palm
04:04and downtown Lake Worth Beach.
04:06So downtown West Palm Beach, big, big number one concern is this rapid, rapid growth and how you balance that
04:14with smart growth.
04:14And in Lake Worth, they have some real water quality challenges and infrastructure that really need to be addressed through
04:21the legislature.
04:22And it would have been really important for them to have a District 87 representative in this legislative session that
04:28just wrapped up.
04:29So that is the importance of representation, is these local issues that need, you know,
04:34you need a representative to go fight for your needs at the local level.
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