TALLAHASSEE — A Black progressive woman with a pink megaphone, a shoestring budget and no political party backing proved a candidate can win a statewide election in Florida with a populist message that appeals to voters hurting from a dismal economy.
Read more Brightline records its first pedestrian death in Orange County
Angie Nixon, union organizer, small business owner and state representative from Jacksonville, bucked conventional wisdom and stunned national media and the political establishment with a come-from-behind win Tuesday in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.
Without a single major television buy, Nixon won by 12 percentage points over Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a candidate who was highly favored by the Democratic establishment in Washington and who outspent her 9 to 1. Nixon triumphed because she excelled in organizing and built a grassroots coalition of volunteers who helped her knock on doors and canvass the state in a minivan — one with her image on the side.
Now the question is: Can Nixon can do it again?
She is considered even more of a longshot than Vindman against the Republican nominee, Ashley Moody — though one poll in July showed Nixon performed better against Moody than Vindman did. Moody is the state’s former attorney general who was appointed senator by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio when President Donald Trump appointed him secretary of state.
J. Miles Coleman, an associate editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political newsletter, said Nixon’s victory is problematic for Democrats. Because she’s got an uphill battle without the funding to match Moody, he moved the race from “Likely Republican” to “Safe Republican.”
Nixon has other obstacles to overcome, like her recent association with the Democratic Socialists of America, which Moody and other Florida Republicans quickly jumped on.
“They hate this country,” Moody said Thursday during a state GOP victory rally in Tampa. “They hate parental rights. They want to transition your kids without you knowing. They want to teach your kids to hate America without you knowing.”
In a recent email, state GOP chairman Evan Power called Nixon a “far-left crazy person” whose platform is a “gift to Republicans.”
During her victory speech in Jacksonville on Tuesday night, Nixon predicted the GOP would call her “extreme” and “radical” and use fear tactics to warn off voters.
“But I think people see through that,” Nixon said. “I won’t let them define me, and I know you will always know where I stand, with you every day people, every day hard working people. I look forward, Ashley Moody, to taking you on and whooping you in November…and you will be calling me your senator.”
Nixon also has to overcome the skepticism of more moderate Democrats, especially members of the Jewish caucus who don’t agree with her positions on Israel, including describing the war in Gaza as genocide and calling Israeli President Netanyahu a war criminal.
She is no stranger to working hard and defying the odds. When she first ran for state House in 2020, Nixon was pregnant and campaigning with little money — and still beat a heavily favored and well financed opponent in the Democratic primary.
A political science graduate of the University of Florida, Nixon said she will now continue her hard campaigning, traveling around the state and talking to voters about the issues that concern them the most. In the final stretch of her campaign, she drove from Pensacola to Key West.
“I am actually focused on Florida and making sure I’m talking to voters here to make sure I uplift their needs and concerns,” she told CBS News. “That is what my focus is going to be over the next 76 days.”
Nixon announced in January she was jumping into the Senate race. She managed to raise only $975,000 and spent all but $265,000 leading up to the primary.
Vindman raised over $16 million — the 10th largest sum of anyone running for U.S. Senate this year, even more than Moody, who raised $12 million.
Vindman refused to debate Nixon. To observers, he seemed unable to engage with voters and was more focused on Moody than his primary opponent.
One difference Nixon stressed is her lifelong connection to Florida, while Vindman has lived in Florida only since 2023.
Read more Bail bondsman, facing prison for coercing sex, damaged Little Wekiva River
A major turning point in the campaign occurred when Vindman’s wife made disparaging comments about Nixon on social media, telling her to “buy some professional clothes for the love of everything (including shoes).” The comments went viral, and Vindman withdrew the comment and issued an apology. Nixon shot back with a cheeky video of herself modeling clothing she bought at thrift stores.
But after Vindman conceded, he promised to back Nixon, sending out a fundraising mailer on her behalf.
“Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign,” Vindman said in his fundraiser email. “I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody. I hope you’ll join me.”
While Nixon wasn’t well-known nationally, her background as a union organizer, and as executive director for Florida For All, a voter recruitment nonprofit, helped her marshal a statewide network of campaign supporters.
She’s also made a name for herself for her outspoken opposition to DeSantis and the Republican leadership’s conservative, culture-wars agenda. She staged a sit-in on the state House floor in 2022 over redistricting, and this year, she was reprimanded for wielding a pink bullhorn on the House floor to protest a vote on a new redistricting plan that likely reduced Democratic representation in Congress and also Black representation.
She also was arrested for staging a sit-in at the governor’s office to protest that redistricting plan, which DeSantis championed.
Though she leaned into her progressive policies and joined the Democratic Socialists of America during the last two months of her campaign, Nixon was not endorsed by the organization. She was, however, endorsed by other progressives including Rep. Maxwell Frost, and was joined on the campaign trail by two members of “The Squad,” U.S. Reps Ihlan Omer and Rashid Tlaib.
When pressed by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether her association with the DSA would be a distraction, Nixon quipped, “You all are the only ones that are distracted. I’m actually going out talking to voters about the things that matter to them.”
She also said that as the owner of a bookstore and cafe in Jacksonville, she considers herself a capitalist and doesn’t agree with some of the DSA’s platform, including defunding the police and shutting down prisons.
David Jolly, the former Republican congressman turned Democrat, on Tuesday won the party’s gubernatorial primary. That puts both a more moderate and a more progressive Democrat on the top of the Florida ballot in November.
But Jolly said the two are campaigning on the same key issues.
“She leaves it all on the field. She goes into a room and talks about everything I talk about,” Jolly told MS Now. “Can we improve your access to affordable housing, to health care, do you know where to educate your kids. What is it the government can do where the private sector is unable to improve your life. Angie’s out there fighting for those same values.”
Though it delighted the GOP, her primary win has also pumped up the more liberal Democrats and gives them someone to be excited about, supporters say.
Her candidacy brings in progressives, young adults, Blacks and working class Democrats who have begun to feel alienated, “who don’t feel connected to the Democratic Party like they used to be,” said Dwight Bullard, a former state lawmaker and senior political advisor for Florida Rising, a grassroots, progressive political and social advocacy organization
Having a Black, progressive woman at the top of the ballot could help Jolly, who chose a moderate running mate like himself in former congresswoman Gwen Graham.
“She’s going to bring a lot of excitement for people who don’t normally engage in this space and that will have a trickle down effect,” Bullard said.
Her campaign for Senate won’t be easy, he admitted, saying he was “not trying to create some pie in the sky” narrative “but there is a pathway.”
Read more Police: A family’s plan to scare a thief ended with a gunshot and death
And, he added, “Angie is always going to defy expectations.”