Angie Nixon pulled off an upset win in Florida’s Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, defeating an “establishment” candidate and setting a path to potentially make history in November.
“We knew we were gonna win because we worked super, super hard,” Nixon, a 42-year-old Florida state representative, told theGrio a few hours after handily beating Alex Vindman to secure the Democratic nomination. She now heads into a tough general election against Republican nominee Ashley Moody.
Nixon’s win was quickly framed as another victory for the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, whose members have upset several Democratic races this election cycle.
“We’re excited that we were able to shock the world,” Nixon told theGrio. However, the Florida lawmaker rejects the notion that her campaign is defined by labels, explaining that she had only recently joined DSA and the Working Families Party.
“This political moment shouldn’t be defined by labels because it really should be defined by people’s needs,” she explained. “I joined these organizations because they care about the needs of people. They want to make sure that people have the most basic rights, which are access to quality healthcare, access to quality housing, access to universal child care, and a very good public education. That is what people care about, and that is what resonates with people.”
Beyond the politics, Nixon turned to good old-fashioned organizing to pull out a sound victory.
“We traveled all across the state from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, and we just talked to people, and we listened to people, and that’s what resonated, and that’s why people decided to vote for us,” she told theGrio.
If elected on Nov. 3, Nixon would become the state’s first Black U.S. Senator and join an already historic number of Black Americans, including two other Black women, concurrently serving in the upper chamber of Congress. She tells theGrio it’s “long overdue” considering Florida has the second-largest Black population in the country.
But while she embraces the idea of making history in Florida, Nixon explained, “I’m also not just going to be the U.S. senator for Black people. I’m gonna be the U.S. senator for all people because we all want the same things. That’s to be healthy, prosperous, and safe, and that’s what I’m gonna fight for.”
Nixon has already proven to Florida voters she isn’t afraid of a fight. In April, as the Republican supermajority in the Florida state legislature moved to redraw its congressional maps—which targeted districts with majority Black and brown voters—Nixon went viral for using a bullhorn to protest on the floor of the Florida House of Representatives.
“This is a violation of the Constitution,” she shouted. “I will not allow you to destroy our democracy!”
Reflecting on the moment, Nixon told theGrio, “Democracy was under attack. Donald Trump decided to look out for his own horrible, failing administration, and reached out to Ron DeSantis to rig some maps for this election season.”
She continued, “I could not sit idly by as they were doing unconstitutional and illegal things in order to allow the elected politicians to be able to decide who their voters were, as opposed to allowing people to decide who represented them.”
Nixon also participated in a sit-in protest inside Governor Ron DeSantis’ office, resulting in criminal misdemeanor charges that attorneys believe will be dropped. She told theGrio, “I was doing my duty for the people of the state of Florida.”
As the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Angie Nixon’s political rise in Florida comes at a moment of contention for Black representation and the Democratic Party’s relationship with Black voters following the U.S. Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the subsequent gerrymandering of congressional maps that are eliminating majority-Black districts and Black leadership in Congress.
That was most recently reflected in Tuesday’s Democratic primary contest in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is white, defeated four Black candidates in a crowded race. Wasserman Schultz, a longtime congresswoman who served as chair of the Democratic National Committee, declined to run for re-election in her own district after it became more competitive for Republicans. Instead, she ran in the 20th District, one of the state’s few remaining majority-Black districts. Several critics have called out Wasserman Schultz for choosing political survivability over preserving Black representation.
Nixon says that while the attacks on Black voters and Black representation should be primarily blamed on Governor DeSantis and President Donald Trump, the Democratic Party must reckon with how it values Black voters, who are the party’s most loyal voting bloc.
“The Democratic Party does need to have some tough conversations as it relates to Black people and how we’re showing up for them, how we represent them, how we invest in them,” she told theGrio. “For too long, many in the Black community have felt as though the Democratic Party may have only wanted us for our labor and not necessarily our leadership.”
Nixon added, “I’m happy to broker conversations and really work to address these issues so that we can come together and actually work to build a Florida and an America for all.”
But with the fight ahead, Nixon says she is squarely focused on defeating Ashley Moody and pushing back against the Trump administration.
“Donald Trump and unelected Ashley Moody are so out of touch with everyday people, and they are winding up working less and less and less, and meanwhile they’re getting richer. But we on the outside are working harder and don’t have as much to show for it,” said Nixon. “People are fed up. This is folks saying enough is enough, and I’m happy to help lead the way.”
For anyone questioning Nixon’s ability to win in Florida, which is often described as a “red state” where Republicans have dominated the state’s electoral politics, the U.S. Senate Democratic nominee says, “This isn’t a red state. This is a state that had historical divestment.”
“If we were to invest in this state, we would potentially see an increase in the overall net worth of Black people. We would see the wage gap get smaller, and so we just need to invest here. We can start winning,” said Nixon.
Much like she defeated Vindman in the primary despite being outspent, the Florida Democrat says she knows how to win even when the odds are stacked against you.
“As someone who is a former single parent, I know how to make a dollar stretch. And so I’m gonna make it do what it do,” she told theGrio.
