Democrat flips seat representing Mar-a-Lago’s district in Florida special election
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters and members of the media at Mar-a-Lago on February 1, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida.(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Democrat Emily Gregory won the Florida House District 87 special election, according to The Associated Press, flipping the district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
In the Tuesday evening upset victory, Gregory was reported to have defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Jon Maples by about 2.4 percentage points, according to the AP.
The Democrat’s victory came after the president, who had endorsed Maples, himself cast a mail-in ballot, according to public records, despite his years-long criticism of voting by mail.
He turned to his social media platform on Monday to encourage voters to support Maples, calling the statehouse race a “very important” special election and emphasizing its location in Palm Beach County, where he spends much of his winter and just visited this past weekend.
“Jon is a very successful Businessman and Civic Leader, who is known and loved, and also endorsed by so many of my Palm Beach County friends,” the president added.
Democrats were celebrating the flip as a major accomplishment leading into the midterms, while also touting the symbolic significance of a victory on the president’s home turf.
“Mar-a-Lago just flipped red to blue, which should have Republicans sweating the midterms,” Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “A Trump +11 district in his own backyard shouldn’t be in play for Democrats, but tonight proves Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.”
Williams also projected a positive outlook heading into the midterms, saying “If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November.”
“This victory reiterates an undeniable trend in Florida: with year round organizing and infrastructure investment, Democrats can run and win anywhere–including Donald Trump’s backyard,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.
Gregory, who is a small business owner and public health professional, told MS Now on Tuesday night that she still felt “pretty shocked” by the victory and that she didn’t think “much” about the president being one of her constituents.
Trump is “one of 115,000 registered voters in district 87,” she said. “My opponent made, you know, him forefront in his campaign. And I focused more on the voters in district 87, you know, what everybody needs. What all of us will do better with … lower property insurance, with expanded healthcare, and with strong public schools.”
FBI Director Kash Patel holds a news conference at Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2026. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — FBI Director Kash Patel is set to be questioned by members of the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday afternoon amid several controversies involving the director.
Patel will testify alongside the other heads of the Department of Justice agencies such as the heads of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
While it’s a hearing regarding the 2027 budget request, Patel is expected to face questions about a host of issues from the alleged misuse of FBI resources for travel to the story in The Atlantic that alleged he has had “bouts of excessive drinking” and job performance issues.
Patel said last month that he’s “never been intoxicated on the job,” following the report. Patel sued The Atlantic over the article, demanding $250 million in damages.
Asked about the article during an unrelated press conference last month, Patel railed against negative media coverage.
“I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia and when they get louder, it just means I’m doing my job,” Patel said.
In February, Patel joined in on Team USA hockey’s locker room celebrations in Italy shortly after the team won the gold medal — a move that drew scrutiny about his use of FBI resources to attend.
Patel, a hockey fan, was said to have had meetings in Italy prior to attending the game. Ben Williamson, an FBI spokesperson, said on social media that Patel’s trip had been previously scheduled. He added that “any other personal expenses would be reimbursed.”
During the hearing, Patel is also expected to tout his successes at the FBI.
“Whether it’s rebuilding our entire backbone infrastructure, caring more for our workforce, actioning the business side of the house, eliminating bureaucracy, integrating AI, procuring equipment, developing new private sector partnerships – we have delivered the changes you have been requesting for years… and we did it in just over 1 year,” Patel said in a message to the FBI last week. “Together, these reforms have truly transformed this FBI into the premier modern-day law enforcement organization we need to be.”
When Patel last testified on Capitol Hill in September 2025, he sparred with Democrats as he faced questions about the assassination of conservative activist and influencer Charlie Kirk and his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing next Thursday, he’ll be the first U.S. president to set foot in China in nearly a decade. The last visit was Trump’s own, in 2017.
He arrives in a very different position than he expected: the trip was originally scheduled for earlier this spring, then postponed because of the Iran war.
Trump had said the war would only last four to six weeks. Instead, there’s no end in sight with the the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed and U.S. gas prices surging — as the president faces record-low approval ratings.
That backdrop has flipped the leverage dynamic, according to experts who study the region.
The leverage flip
Beijing would have preferred this war never started — the energy disruption and the hit to global demand are real headaches for an export-dependent economy, experts say. But they say the conflict has handed Xi a relative advantage: Trump now has too many fires to put out at home and abroad to risk another escalation cycle with China.
“China is a relative bright spot in Trump’s foreign policy right now,” said Jon Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council.
The longer the Iran war drags on, Czin argued, the more it minimizes the chance of another economic confrontation — Beijing has also already demonstrated it can retaliate — as it did with tariffs and rare earth export controls — and the administration backed down before.
Both sides are still trying to eke out an edge in the run-up. The Treasury Department recently sanctioned Chinese oil refiners and shipping firms tied to Iranian crude to cut off funding. In an unprecedented move, Beijing invoked a “blocking rule” for the first time, directing Chinese companies not to comply with sanctions on Chinese oil refiners.
Daniel Shapiro, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, points out the war has reduced the U.S. military posture in the Indo-Pacific with long-term consequences for deterring China and defending Taiwan.
“Trump’s position and leverage at the summit is considerably weaker if he goes to Beijing with the war still unsettled, or even with renewed escalation. And the Iranians know that. So they are whittling down the terms to end the war to something much more modest than what Trump originally envisioned,” Shapiro wrote in a post on X.
What Trump wants
The administration clearly wants Beijing to use its influence over Tehran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week urged Beijing to use the Iran’s foreign minister’s visit to China earlier this week to press Tehran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
“I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told,” Rubio said when asked about China’s top diplomat meeting with Iran’s foreign minister. “And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated. You’re the bad guy in this.”
Beyond the war in Iran, Trump will be looking for wins on trade and investment: For instance, Chinese commitments to buy Boeing planes and U.S. agricultural goods as well as an extension of the trade truce reached during the last Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea last year, according to experts.
The administration also wants China to continue its pause on rare earth export controls, analysts say. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also proposed a “Board of Trade” to manage economic ties between the countries and goods the two sides are trading.
What Beijing wants — and what it doesn’t
Here’s the gap between the administration’s public framing and what analysts who study China most closely are saying: Beijing doesn’t actually plan to deliver much on Iran or get deeply involved.
Beijing’s statement after the meeting with the Iranian Foreign Ministry was carefully worded to not blame Iran for the crisis while also calling for greater efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Chinese are not interested in assuming any kind of direct role in the conflict,” according to Patricia Kim, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “They see this as a problem that the United States needs to solve, and they have no interest in intervening on Tehran’s behalf.”
Czin’s read is similar. While Beijing’s meeting with the Iranian foreign minister this week let it “posture as peacemakers,” he says the Chinese don’t want Iran to take up too much summit time. His analog: even on North Korea, right on China’s doorstep, Beijing rarely puts real pressure on Pyongyang.
China’s energy buffer is part of why the urgency is lower than the Trump administration assumes. Beijing has built strategic oil reserves, invested heavily in green energy, and can shift to domestically produced coal. The bigger risk for China isn’t the energy crunch itself.
“The bigger issue for China is the secondary and tertiary effects from this conflict,” Czin said — such as a war-driven global slowdown that hits the Southeast Asian and European consumers that Chinese exports depend on.
What Beijing actually wants from the summit is more stability: lock in the trade truce, push back on U.S. export controls on advanced technology and ease restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S.
What’s unclear is how hard Xi will push Trump on Taiwan. Any small shift in U.S. declaratory language on Taiwan would be significant, though Czin is skeptical Trump would stick with new wording even if he agreed to it.
Bottom line
Expect fanfare, expect deliverables on the margins — purchase commitments or a possible Board of Trade announcement — and don’t expect breakthroughs on the hard issues, experts say.
The summit’s significance is less in what it produces than in what it preserves: a tenuous stability that both leaders, for different reasons, want to keep intact through the rest of the year.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick appears for a hearing of the House Ethics Committee on Capitol Hill, on March 26, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A special panel of the bipartisan House Ethics Committee determined on Friday that Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was guilty of 25 ethics violations, including commingling of campaign and personal funds.
The determination came after the panel held a rare public hearing on Thursday to consider whether Cherfilus-McCormick violated House rules amid sweeping allegations of fraud against her — and a four-count federal indictment.
The panel said in a statement that deliberations in the case “lasted until well past midnight” and that they found “clear and convincing evidence” that the congresswoman was guilty of all but two of the 27 counts.
“We had a good, robust discussion on all counts, voted on all counts, and we were able to find agreement on 25 of the 27 counts,” Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told ABC News on Friday morning.
The ethics violations include acceptance of improper campaign contributions, false statements, commingling of campaign and personal funds and reporting errors on financial disclosures.
The full House Ethics Committee will hold a hearing after the April congressional recess to “determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend.” The sanction recommendations could include censure or expulsion, which would require a two-thirds majority vote.
“There will be a sanctions hearing,” Guest said. “That date has not been set, but there will be a sanctions hearing sometime, we hope shortly after we return back from the Easter recess.”
Separately, Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in November by a federal grand jury on charges of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, which she is accused of laundering to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
The indictment alleges Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, received a $5 million overpayment in FEMA funds directed to their family health care company in connection with a contract for COVID-19 vaccination staffing in 2021.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the federal criminal charges against her.
During Thursday’s hourslong hearing, lawmakers on the panel questioned Cherfilus-McCormick’s counsel and the committee’s investigative staff about the allegations against the congresswoman.
Cherfilus-McCormick did not address the committee throughout the proceedings, but she took notes and occasionally talked to her attorney.
Her attorney, William Barzee, demanded that his client receive a full hearing — allowing him to call in witnesses.
Guest pushed back on this request, saying Cherfilus-McCormick has refused to cooperate with the panel’s ongoing investigation.
Barzee acknowledged that the congresswoman “made a lot of mistakes” on financial forms.
In a statement to ABC News ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the congresswoman said: “I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight and challenge these inaccuracies, when I am legally able to do so. Make no mistake: I am innocent and I am a fighter. My district is made up of fighters. I will continue to fight for the people I was elected to serve.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that while he believes in “due process,” the congresswoman “has egregiously violated the law.”
“This is a very serious matter. I think even many Democrats, even members of her own party, have publicly said that the evidence is so stark … but we have to process this internally and see how this goes,” Johnson said Thursday.
The adjudicatory subcommittee that held the hearing is made up of an equal number of three Republicans and three Democrats will hear Cherfilus-McCormick’s case Thursday.
In addition to Guest, the chairman, the subcommittee is made up Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier as ranking member. Democratic Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Glenn Ivey and Suhas Subramanyam and Republican Reps. Ashley Hinson, Brad Knott and Nathaniel Moran also serve on the subcommittee.
“I am deeply disappointed the Committee chose to move forward with this trial while denying my legal team reasonable time to prepare. That raises serious concerns about due process and the fundamental rights every American is entitled to under our Constitution,” the congresswoman said in a statement to ABC News.
Speaker Johnson previously deferred to the members of the House to determine whether the congresswoman should be expelled from the House. The last member to be expelled was former New York GOP Rep. George Santos over using campaign dollars for his personal enrichment in 2023 — only the sixth representative ever ousted.
“Expulsion, obviously, is effectively the political death penalty. There are occasions that meet that standard, but it’s a decision of the body to determine that,” Johnson said.
“You look at all the factors and you — you figure that out. We’ll be doing that here in this case,” Johnson said. “It seems that this member of Congress has egregiously violated the law and exploited taxpayers and all the rest, and that, that would be, it would be a harsh penalty necessary for that.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has promised Democrats won’t help Republicans kick her out of Congress, regardless of the ethics inquiry.
“Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick is entitled to the presumption of innocence, like every other American,” Jeffries told reporters on Feb. 2. “I’m a hard no as it relates to the effort to expel her, and it’s going to fail.”
The last public ethics trial occurred in 2010 when New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel came before the panel. Rangel was later censured over failing to report assets on his financial disclosure forms, improperly obtaining four rent-controlled apartments in New York, and failing to disclose financial arrangements for a villa in the Dominican Republic.
Rangel maintained that he never knowingly broke any laws. “I truly believe I have not been treated fairly,” Rangel told the Ethics Committee before storming out of his hearing.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
