In 2018, Florida’s Senate election was decided by just 10,000 votes — a close-enough margin to trigger a mandatory recount. In 2022, Florida’s Senate election was decided by 1,273,325 votes. In 2024, Florida’s Senate election was decided by 1,374,629 votes. As of August 2026, the Republican Party’s registration advantage in Florida was 1,529,028 — a number that increased by more than 14,000 in July alone.
The Florida Democratic Party just nominated a socialist, Angie Nixon, as its Senate candidate.
It is true that Nixon’s victory in the primary was partially attributable to the weakness of her primary opponent, Alexander Vindman, a preening, vacuous, entitled out-of-stater who seems to have assumed that his role in spurring the first impeachment of Donald Trump would inspire gratitude in Florida’s Democrats. It didn’t. Despite outspending Nixon 16-fold, Vindman lost 44–56. But whether or not her selection reflects a genuine leftward shift among Democrats, it remains the case that, once again, they have picked a radical to represent them. “But I didn’t want Vindman” may be a reasonable analytical explanation among primary voters, but it won’t help one whit come November. Florida is not only a Republican state; it is a conservative state. Angie Nixon is a poor fit.
Apologists for Nixon insist that it doesn’t especially matter which figure the Democratic Party chose to represent it, given that their candidate will be described as a “socialist” anyway. This is wishful thinking. It is, of course, true that all manner of hyperbole is thrown around during elections. But it is far more difficult to defend against charges of extremism when those charges are true. Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has been endorsed by Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley. She is in favor of abolishing private health insurance, of a federal childcare program, of a federal rent freeze, of a universal jobs program, of abolishing ICE, and of a variation on the Green New Deal. And, of course, she is a radical on Israel. In 2023, shortly after Hamas’s brutal attack against Israel, Nixon introduced a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire that was so politically toxic that her own party demanded she withdraw it. She didn’t. It was defeated in Florida’s House of Representatives by 104 votes to two. It is telling that, in his victory speech this week, the Democrats’ choice for governor in Florida, David Jolly, felt the need to insist aloud, “I reject socialism.”
Clearly, Jolly has remembered where he is running. Florida not only has a constitutional provision that prohibits the taxation of income, dividends, capital gains, and pension distribution; its constitution contains a rule that no tax or fee can be raised in the state without the acquiescence of two-thirds of the legislature. Florida has the smallest state government workforce per capita of all 50 states, a property and sales tax regime that is friendlier than Texas’s, and, despite having more residents than New York State, a budget around half the size of New York’s. (Even more remarkably, Florida’s budget is smaller than New York City’s.) And it’s working. Per CNBC, Florida has boasted the strongest economy in the nation for the last three years straight, while, per WalletHub, six of the ten best cities in the United States to start a business are in Florida. Among the average Florida voter, there is no appetite for what Angie Nixon is selling — and that’s before one considers that South Florida is full of émigrés from Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia for whom “socialism” is the dirtiest of words.
In recent years, the Republican Party has thrown away a host of winnable Senate seats by nominating strange or extreme characters who lacked appeal to the political middle. Evidently, it is now the Democrats’ turn to make the same mistake. Given Florida’s current partisan makeup, winning a Senate seat in the Sunshine State was always going to be a long shot, but, at the very least, the party could have fought its way back onto its feet. Instead, it has indulged its worst instincts and, as in Michigan and elsewhere, provided the Republicans with yet more evidence for their charge that the Democratic Party is being gradually taken over by communists. This isn’t “just happening in New York” anymore.