After waiting more than seven weeks for Gov. Ron DeSantis to set a special election to fill a vacant state representative seat in Palm Beach County, a candidate for the job wants a judge to order the governor to act.
Candidate Emily Gregory’s campaign filed a lawsuit against DeSantis on Tuesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
“As residents face skyrocketing property insurance, rising costs of living, and underfunded schools, House District 87 has been left without a voice in Tallahassee,” Gregory said in a statement.
If DeSantis doesn’t act soon to set dates for a special primary and special general election, the timetable for elections means there may not be anyone representing the Palm Beach County district in the state House of Representatives during next year’s legislative session.
“Families in Palm Beach County can’t afford a legislative session without representation,” Gregory said. “This lawsuit isn’t about politics — it’s about fairness and democracy.”
Legislators have already started committee work in advance of the session, scheduled to run from Jan. 13 through March 13.
“The Governor has refused to perform his statutory duty to call a special election to fill a vacancy in Florida House District 87, as the law requires,” the lawsuit states, adding that what it described as DeSantis’ “failure” to perform his duty “leaves the district’s constituents without representation and threatens to deprive them of a voice in the halls of the Capitol during the 2026 session set to begin in January.”
The vacancy in question was created by DeSantis. When the Republican governor appointed then-state Rep. Mike Caruso to fill the vacant job of Palm Beach County clerk of the circuit court and comptroller on Aug. 18, the Republican representative immediately resigned from the state House.
Gregory, a Democrat, who had already filed as a candidate in the 2026 election, wants to run to fill the vacancy.
It’s up to DeSantis to set dates for special primary and special general elections. He sometimes acts quickly to call special elections, and sometimes waits months.
On July 21, Republican Blaise Ingoglia resigned from the Florida Senate because DeSantis named him as the state’s new chief financial officer. On July 22, DeSantis set the dates for special primary and general elections to fill the vacancy.
Also on July 22, DeSantis set the dates for special primary and general elections to fill the vacancy created by the death four days earlier of state Rep. Joe Casello, a Palm Beach County Democrat.
In many cases, DeSantis waits far longer than his Republican predecessors as governor to set special elections.
The special election for the (Democratic-leaning) Casello district and the lack of a special election for the (Republican-leaning) Caruso seat are unusual in one respect: Usually he waits longer to call special elections in Democratic districts than in Republican areas.
House District 87 is in the central part of the county along the Atlantic coast. About 40% of its active registered voters are Republican, 28% Democratic, 27% no party affiliation/independent and 4% in minor parties.
DeSantis has shown another pattern. In previous South Florida cases, when lawsuits have been filed seeking to order DeSantis to set special elections, he acts quickly — avoiding a court battle and possible order from a judge compelling him to act.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings died on April 6, 2021. On April 29, a candidate to succeed Hastings filed a federal lawsuit seeking a court order compelling DeSantis to set a special election. DeSantis set the special election five days later.
But he added an unusually long delay before the election, setting a timetable that kept the vacancy open for a total of nine months.
Also in 2021, DeSantis waited months to set special elections for three legislative vacancies, a Broward state Senate and state House seat and a Palm Beach County state House seat.
He finally set dates for the special elections — 12 days after the Harvard Election Law Clinic filed a lawsuit on behalf of Broward and Palm Beach County voters seeking a judge’s order compelling him to schedule the election dates.
Caruso raised the prospect last week that the seat might remain vacant during the 2026 session.
“I’m not sure if there’s going to be a special election,” Caruso told his former colleagues at a meeting of the Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation. “It is important that the seat does get filled because we’ve got so many issues in the county. We want District 87 represented in the Florida House.”
Caruso said last week he had “tried to reach out to the governor’s office to see what he’s planning and have not gotten any feedback on that.”
The governor’s communications office did not respond to a request for comment on Sept. 30 about whether he’d call a special election in District 87. DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit filed by the Gregory campaign.
The Gregory campaign announced the lawsuit, but the candidate didn’t file it herself. The petitioner, similar to a plaintiff, is a supporter and resident of the district, Paula Mcclease. The attorney who signed it, Matthew A. Goldberger, is Gregory’s campaign treasurer.
“In the absence of a special election called very soon, Petitioner will go without the representation to which she is entitled in the 2026 legislative session and for weeks, potentially months, afterward — during which legislators provide constituent services, perform official duties, and may be called back into special session. Petitioner’s voice, and the voices of her neighbors, will go unheard in the Capitol,” the complaint said.
Republicans have a commanding majority over Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives, so the vacancy is unlikely to affect the outcome on major issues. Not having a representative means there wouldn’t be someone in the House advocating for funding projects in the district.
Besides Gregory, Laura Ann Levites has filed paperwork to run as a Democrat in the 2026 election. Two Republicans, Jon Maples and Gretchen Miller Feng, have filed as 2026 candidates for the seat.
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.