Angie Nixon’s victory in the Senate primary was powered by voters who normally don’t gravitate to progressives in the state’s lowest-income and less-educated counties.
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A democratic socialist pulled off a stunning upset in Florida’s Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, defeating her better-funded opponent with a strong showing in communities where progressives usually struggle.
State Rep. Angie Nixon’s victory over retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was powered by voters in Florida’s lowest-income and least-college-educated counties, as well as the ones with the most Black voters, according to a Washington Post analysis of election and demographic data.
That coalition built by Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America a few weeks ago, defies the traditional voting bloc for left-wing candidates who have won primaries this year.
Nixon was the clear underdog headed into Tuesday’s contest. The two-term lawmaker from Jacksonville raised just under $1 million since entering the race this year, compared with the $16 million Vindman raised nationally from Democrats drawn to his history as a key witness in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. Nixon’s 12-percentage-point victory was among the biggest primary shockers this year and the latest example of a left-wing insurgent toppling a favorite of the Democratic establishment.
“We definitely knew we were going to win. We just didn’t know we were going to win by that much,” Nixon told The Post on Wednesday, hours after her race was called.
Nixon, however, distinguished her victory from the slate of democratic socialists who have scored upset victories in Democratic primaries nationwide. While she ran on progressive policies such as universal child care and Medicare-for-all, she said she did not agree with the DSA on all issues and believed her campaign, not a national organization, allowed her to build a coalition that looked different from other democratic-socialist wins.
“I know people think that I’m this overnight success story, but I’m not. I’ve been doing the work,” she said. Nixon has been a Democratic organizer for decades and unseated an incumbent to join the Florida House in 2020. “Also, I am a really good campaigner, and I am very strategic. I mean, I’m going to honk my horn a little bit.”
Nixon, 42, was not endorsed by the DSA or any of its local chapters in Florida, so she was less tied to the group’s brand, and she said she also joined the Working Families Party, another progressive entity. Moderates prevailed elsewhere in primaries: David Jolly, a former Republican congressman turned Trump critic, handily won the Democratic nomination for governor, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) easily fended off a democratic socialist primary challenger.
But Richie Floyd, a DSA member and St. Petersburg City Council member, said her victory still represents a win for the broader progressive movement, which is aligned on issues such as Medicare-for-all and the rights of Palestinians.
“She won on her own merits as a great candidate that connected with voters, but her platform and values show that DSA has a bright future in this state,” Floyd said.
Florida, once a swing state, is not considered a Senate battleground. National Democrats hoped Vindman, with his sizable war chest, could make the race more interesting, but nonpartisan election handicappers say incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody (R) is heavily favored in November, despite having been nominated to the job and not being widely known in the state. The winner in the November special election, triggered by Marco Rubio stepping down to become secretary of state, will serve through 2028.
Some political strategists have said any hope of pulling off an upset victory in the general election vanished with Nixon’s nomination, whom they consider too far left for Florida’s electorate and unable to raise the money needed to compete.
Nixon made headlines this year when she staged a sit-in at Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) office to protest his gerrymandered congressional maps. She was arrested after refusing to leave. Set to face a trial next month, Nixon turned a July court date into a boost for her campaign on social media.
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That boost, combined with Vindman largely ignoring his primary challenge to focus on the general election, allowed Nixon to assemble a winning coalition that looked quite different from those backing progressive statewide candidates in other states, including Michigan and Wisconsin. There, the progressive candidates typically did best in more college-educated and younger areas, and sometimes floundered in lower-income counties and those with more Black residents.
That was not the case in Florida. Nixon, who is Black, won by 30 points in Florida’s counties with the most Black residents, as well as its least-college-educated counties.
While Black voters historically have powered the victories of establishment-backed Democrats, Floyd, who is Black, said that the Democratic establishment in Florida has been viewed less and less “as a staunch defender of our rights.” That’s created an opening for progressives to win over Black voters with populist economic appeals, Floyd said.
Like other progressives, Nixon dominated in younger areas. Counties with the most young adults backed her by about 30 points, while counties with the fewest young adults went for Vindman by a 20-point margin. Vindman performed best in Sumter County, the oldest county in the country, which includes the retiree haven of The Villages.
Nixon also won suburban counties that often reject progressives in Democratic primaries, while posting significant margins in the major urban areas where left-wing candidates often excel.
Nixon’s victory also benefited from Vindman’s mistakes.
Steve Schale, a longtime Democratic strategist in Florida, said that while Vindman raised millions, most of his spending was focused on preparing for the general election and not communicating with primary voters. Some Democrats said Vindman’s primary strategy made him look arrogant, a view that was especially damaging because the candidate moved to Florida only a few years earlier.
“He was more of a national figure than he was a state figure,” Schale said. “She ran a better race and had more excitement on the ground.”
The Vindman strategy appeared to bother Nixon, even after she won the primary.
“I love my state, and what I won’t allow is people to come to my state and disrespect people, and act as though they want to represent them,” Nixon said. “If you want to represent people, you’ve got to go talk to them.”
Nixon beat Vindman in Broward, his home county and the state’s most heavily Democratic county. Corey Shearer, president of the Broward County Democratic Black Caucus, said Nixon turned a diverse coalition of volunteers into a strong organizing force that knocked on far more doors and made far more phone calls.
Nixon offered voters “the fighting spirit” that they were looking for, Shearer said, while Vindman, because of his role in Trump’s impeachment, represented much of the “resistance” that stood up to Trump in the halls of power in Washington during his term.
“She captured that when she said, ‘It’s time to stand up,’” Shearer said. “Everyone was ready for that.”
And her willingness to show up, he added, was evident to him months ago, when Nixon visited a monthly Democratic club meeting in Vindman’s home city of Davie in May, spending time greeting voters and activists in the crowd.
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Vindman, meanwhile, did not attend.
