Angie Nixon scores socialist breakthrough in Trump's Florida
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Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon waves as she is introduced to the congregation at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church on Aug. 17. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Angie Nixon's stunning Florida Senate primary win on Tuesday gave the Democratic Socialists of America its biggest statewide breakthrough yet: For the first time ever, a DSA member won a major-party nomination for statewide office.
Why it matters: The breakthrough —the biggest upset in modern Florida Democratic politics— was also stunning because Republicans have spent years making opposition to socialism central to their political brand in the state.
- Nixon, a Jacksonville state representative and former union organizer who joined DSA during the campaign, beat former Trump impeachment witness Alex Vindman.
- The scale of the upset was extraordinary: Nixon won by double digits despite raising just $975,000 to Vindman's $16.3 million in President Trump's home state.
Zoom out: Nixon's breakthrough came one week after fellow DSA member Francesca Hong narrowly lost Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary and two weeks after a left-wing candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, won Michigan's Senate nomination.
- But El-Sayed isn't a DSA member and rejects the socialist label, calling himself a capitalist.
- The only sitting member of the Senate who identifies as a socialist, Vermont's Bernie Sanders, is not a member of DSA.
Behind the scenes: Shocked establishment Democrats were left scrambling Tuesday night to welcome Nixon to the general election.
- At the same time that Republicans were ready to make her a national figure.
- "We couldn't have picked a better candidate," said one of Trump's political advisers. "I wish we could take credit for secretly funding her, but this wasn't us."
What they're saying: "I reject socialism," the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, David Jolly, said on MSNOW. He also shared kind words about Nixon as a "fighter" for better healthcare and education.
- Vindman's defeat adds to a rough primary year for Democrats whose national brands were built around Trump's impeachment fights.
- Former impeachment counsel Dan Goldman, impeachment manager Diana DeGette, along with Al Green and Shri Thanedar, both of whom have introduced impeachment articles during Trump's second term, all lost Democratic primaries this year.
The intrigue: Nixon pulled off the win without endorsements from the left's top figures: Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
- Instead, her endorsers included Reps. Maxwell Frost, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, plus a deep roster of Florida elected officials.
- Vindman spent more than $2 million on advertisements in the primary, while Nixon spent less than $60,000, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
- In a state as big as Florida, $2 million doesn't even pay for a week's worth of statewide advertising that can move the needle for a little-known newcomer like Vindman.
Between the lines: Vindman spent much of the primary behaving as though November, not Nixon, was the only race he needed to worry about.
- He refused to debate Nixon and rarely addressed her campaign.
- Vindman was so "arrogant" that he "literally laughed at Angie Nixon. Said he didn't even think he was in a primary," veteran Florida political consultant Jacob Perry, who had been in discussions with Vindman to join his campaign at one point, told Axios.
How it happened: Nixon had less money, but she had something Vindman's national fundraising couldn't buy: an organizing base and years of relationships inside Florida.
- She was already well known in Jacksonville, a major media market packed with Democratic voters, and ran up the numbers, winning 80% of the vote.
- Her strength traveled farther than expected. She posted big vote totals in liberal college towns as well as in Orlando and South Florida, including — most surprisingly to Florida's political hands watching the returns — in Miami-Dade.
Zoom in: Nixon spent years cultivating a brand of confronting Republican power.
- She first won office by defeating a conservative, anti-abortion Democratic incumbent, then became one of the Florida House's most visible antagonists of Gov. Ron DeSantis, helping lead a 2022 sit-in during a redistricting fight and then bringing a pink bullhorn this year to the latest remapping.
- In 2023, she introduced a Gaza ceasefire resolution that the Florida House rejected 104-2.
What's next: Republicans are expected to highlight Nixon's membership in the DSA.
- "We know the attacks are coming," Nixon told a Jacksonville rally in her victory speech.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
