Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon won the Democratic Senate primary in an upset over better-funded Alexander Vindman. Here’s what to know about her.
Trump votes by mail, Florida primaries tonight and more Trump news
President Trump told a CNN reporter to “be quiet.” There are primaries on Aug. 18, including in Trump’s home state of Florida. He voted by mail for it.
Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon could be the first Democratic Socialists of America member to win a seat in the Senate and Florida’s first Black U.S. senator after winning an upset victory in Florida’s Senate Democratic primary on Aug. 18.
Nixon handily defeated Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who gave critical testimony during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, with both the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ calling the race shortly after the last polls closed in the Sunshine State at 8 p.m. ET.
She received the support of prominent progressives, including Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and overcame establishment Democratic support for Vindman and a wide fundraising deficit.
“We did it ya’ll,” Nixon posted on X moments after she was declared the winner. “Thank you to every person that put their heart into this campaign.”
President Donald Trump acknowledged Nixon’s victory in a post on Truth Social, saying “SleazeBag Vindman loses tonight to a Radical Left Lunatic. How cool is that???”
Nixon now goes on to face incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody for the remainder of the term won by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2022.
Here’s what to know about Angie Nixon.
Who is Angie Nixon?
Nixon is a native of Jacksonville, Florida, and lives in the city’s Moncrief neighborhood, according to her campaign website. She graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville with her bachelor’s degree in political science and government in 2007 after attending a college-preparatory school in Jacksonville.
From 2009 to 2011, Nixon served as a district aide to Florida State Rep. Mia Jones. Nixon’s platform focuses on universal health care, the wealthy paying higher taxes, and increasing the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, according to her campaign website. She reiterated those goals to supporters during her Aug. 18 victory speech.
“It’s the reality that we are fighting for. For those who are just getting to know me, let me tell you a little bit more about who I am,” Nixon said to supporters chanting her name. “We know workers deserve a living wage. We know healthcare is a human right. We know housing is a fundamental need. We know public education is sacred.
“We know childcare is critical infrastructure. We know that our military and Veterans deserve better,” Nixon continued as the chants got louder. “We know that immigrants are our friends, our neighbors. We know that family farmers who feed our state deserve to thrive.”
Nixon was arrested in May after she staged a sit-in at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office to protest the state’s mid-cycle redistricting.
Nixon said she wanted to speak to him the protest was about fair representation and protecting the right to vote. DeSantis said in a post on X that Nixon’s actions was “performative nonsense.” Nixon is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 21 charges of trespassing and resisting an officer without violence, both misdemeanors. She faces up to two years in prison if convicted on both charges.
“It’s just frustrating that I was just exercising my First Amendment right and actually wanting to have a conversation with him, willing to wait for him, and instead he had me arrested,” Nixon told the Tallahassee Democrat – a part of the USA TODAY Network – in July. “So this is just a slap in the face to democracy and what our country was founded on.”
Is Angie Nixon a DSA member?
Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, her campaign confirmed to USA TODAY. If she wins in November, Nixon would be the first DSA member of the Senate. While Vermont independent Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist and has long been the face of the political philosophy, he is not a member of the DSA.
Three Democratic nominees who won primaries earlier this summer for seats in the U.S. House of Representative – Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York and Melat Kiros in Colorado – belong to the group. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashid Tlaib are members of the organization in the lower chamber.
In an NBC News interview on Aug. 17, Nixon did not respond to a question about her DSA membership, instead saying that, “we can argue all day about peoples’ labels, but at the end of the day, I care about the needs of people.”
Her campaign told USA TODAY that besides her membership in the DSA, Nixon is also a member of the Working Families Party, Service Employees International Union and Democratic Party.
The Senate primary was an example of the internal battle in the Democratic Party to see just how left the party will go with its rising progressive faction, despite a blow with the loss of Wisconsin candidate Francesca Hong, a DSA member who was running for governor on Aug. 11. Not all members of the more-left side of the party are democratic socialists or DSA members. Michigan’s El-Sayed for example calls himself “progressive,” and has said he is not a socialist.
However, a DSA-aligned challenger and a democratic socialist both lost bids to unseat prominent establishment Democrats in Florida the same night Nixon won. Elijah Manley lost to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Oliver Larkin lost to Rep. Jared Moskowitz.
Nixon said she’s not afraid of labels
During her victory speech, Nixon said she’s not afraid of labels and had a message for Moody.
“Ashley Moody and her billionaire donors are terrified of us. They know that a united working class movement is coming for them, and we all know what they do when they are scared,” Nixon said. “They lie. They stoke fear and hatred, and division. They make it personal. We know the attacks are coming, but guess what? I’m standing 10 toes down, and we’re going to fight. That’s what we do.”
Nixon added that Moody and “the corporate politicians in Washington will do and say whatever they can to win.”
Moody told her supporters at a campaign victory party in Plant City, Florida, that the Democratic Party has now put up a “self-proclaimed socialist” that she believes isn’t “just a wing of a party.”
“You’re going to have one side that I’m going to be up against that wants to, and the platform says, defund the police, don’t fund our military, open up the border, non-citizen voting,” Moody said.
She added the election is about “voting for the future” and whether the United States will remain true to its founding ideals, characterizing “higher taxes, big government, government seizure of private production, government controlling everything about your life.“
“Angie Nixon and her comrades want to destroy this country and everything that it is built on,” Moody said. “I am not exaggerating.”
Nixon overcame fundraising, spending margin in upset
Nixon’s win is a major upset, said Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of the nonpartisan Sabato’s Crystal Ball newsletter at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“Money isn’t everything, as we saw tonight with Vindman,” Kondik said. “But it is important, and Nixon doesn’t really have the money to run a statewide general election race in Florida.”
Nixon’s campaign raised roughly $1.2 million compared with nearly $16 million for Vindman, said Andrea Pringle, President of March On PAC, a women-led political action committee focused on electing progressive Democrats.
“Organized people can beat big money. Angie Nixon just proved it. This wasn’t a victory built by running away from our values,” Pringle said. “Angie leaned all the way in. She fought for working people, stood up to powerful interests and refused to let pundits, consultants or millions of dollars tell her what kind of candidate she was allowed to be.”
Kondik said UVA’s Center for Politics have now moved the Senate race from “Likely Republican” to “Safe Republican,” favoring Moody as a result of Nixon’s win.
“It wasn’t much of a Democratic target anyway, but it really doesn’t seem like it will be now,” Kondik concluded.