Florida Republicans are taking nothing for granted.
The race for Florida’s seat in the U.S. Senate was already a stretch for Democrats before the party’s socialist nominee, Angie Nixon, exposed her level of commitment to revolutionary socialism:
Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon, who is challenging Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, was asked whether Cuba is a dictatorship. Here's what she had to say.
“That is what people have told me. I have never been to Cuba, and so I will have to take their word for it,"… pic.twitter.com/WL0BIkw8oX
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 27, 2026
In a truly disastrous interview with CBS News, Nixon complained about the Trump administration’s deportation policy — specifically, its efforts to repatriate Cuban nationals back to Cuba. But when she was asked whether she would try to frustrate that policy as a senator, Nixon seemed confused about why that would be necessary or even desirable. Cuban migrants should have access to a “clear and comprehensive pathway to citizenship,” she explained.
CBS reporter Cristian Benavides sensed equivocation. “Do you consider that Cuba is a dictatorship?” he asked. “You know,” Nixon replied without hesitation, “that is what people have told me. I have never been to Cuba, and so I will have to take their word for it.”
Nixon kept digging from there. She bristled with preemptive indignation over the not-yet-even-suggested implication that she harbored pro-regime sentiments. But Nixon did nothing to dispel that suspicion as she rent garments on behalf of the Cubans suffering under America’s “failed embargo,” advocating a return to Barack Obama’s policy of normalized relations with the island.
Nixon evinces more faith in the durability of the Cuban revolution than do the Cuban people. She’s certainly more in the tank for Havana than Florida’s Cuban and Venezuelan diaspora. Indeed, it was Obama’s soft-on-communism policies that played a significant role in transforming South Florida from a dark-blue bastion into a competitive landscape dominated by Republican lawmakers. Nixon didn’t get that memo, but the Sunshine State’s voters can be counted on to send her a reminder on November 3.
Republicans will be scanning the horizon for any hint of good news on election night, and this race is likely to hit the spot. Florida’s polls close early and its vote-counting operation is exceedingly efficient. The state’s Senate race could give the GOP a sense that results across the country may not be as bad for their party as national polling suggests.
Yet plenty of indications suggest the Republican Party is in for a rebuke even in Florida. Donald Trump has been dispatched to rally the faithful in dark-red bastions like Fort Myers. GOP lawmakers are delivering straight-to-camera rebukes of the president’s policies — specifically, his deportation program. Although polling is sparse, Democratic candidates are outperforming GOP nominees in heavily suburban and Hispanic-dominated districts. Democratic PACs are dipping their toes into races where Republicans were once thought unassailable. And in the race for governor, former Republican David Jolly is running competitively enough against Representative Byron Donalds to attract big-name support from his party’s household names.
Florida Republicans are quick to note that their mid-decade redistricting efforts to shore up GOP seats, along with their fundraising and organizational prowess, should boost the party’s prospects. That will help the Republican Party mobilize the state’s more unenthusiastic voters, a disproportionate number of whom are registered Republicans. But even if the GOP averts disaster in Florida, we’ve already seen how wildly the state’s electoral results can diverge from the nation.
Republicans can probably recall their bitter experience in 2022, when a much-anticipated wave of hostility toward the Biden-era Democratic Party manifested in a “red wave” that seemed to crash only over Florida. It’s reasonable to assume the GOP has more room to run in Florida than elsewhere. “Republicans were underestimated in the 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024 polls,” the Tampa Bay Times recently observed. On Election Day, the Sunshine State may give Republicans a glimpse of the same false dawn that seemed to break over Florida four years ago.
But Florida Republicans are taking nothing for granted. “We got to make sure we’re turning out our base voters,” outgoing Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News this week. “So do not sleep on Florida. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”