What Angie Nixon Says About the DSA in Democratic Politics

State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-FL)

I am getting back from a long vacation (my hope is to have an article about it in the next week), but in the meantime, I do want to wade back into the world of politics today, and talk about some of the stories that were of interest I missed in September.  It has been a brutal month for polls for Republicans across the country, with double-digit generic congressional ballots leads for the Democrats becoming the norm, and individual Governor & Senate polling showing huge shifts to the Democrats.  We're in a position where the GOP is considering triaging North Carolina & Georgia (both states that Donald Trump won two years ago), and are starting to shore up contests in states like Iowa, Kansas, & Texas, all districts that he won by double-digits in 2024.  This is all fodder for an article, and maybe I'll write it at some point...but today I want to focus on an under-the-radar contest, and something that is sort of happening in the background of the 2026 election season.

In the state of Florida, there is a special Senate election happening due to Marco Rubio's resignation last year to become the Secretary of State.  Florida was once a swing state, in fact it was the swing state, but it has become a Republican safe-hold in recent years.  Since 2012, when President Obama and Sen. Bill Nelson both won reelection there, only one Democrat (Nikki Fried for Agriculture Commissioner in 2018) has won statewide there, despite Democrats running major players for office, including Rep. Val Demings & former Gov. Charlie Crist (not to mention our presidential candidates).  It is not a state that you would name-check as an easy flip for the Democrats...but then again, neither were Kansas, Texas, or Iowa at the start of this year.  Florida was won by Trump by roughly the same margin as he had in Ohio, Texas, Alaska, & Iowa, and it was considerably closer than Kansas or Nebraska, and yet all of these races seem to be contests that outside interests are showering support upon, and polls show are very close races, potentially even flippable ones for the Democrats.  What makes Florida unique?

It's not because the Republicans have an electoral juggernaut on their hands.  Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) is not a bad candidate, but she's certainly not the natural talent that Marco Rubio is, nor the electoral juggernaut that Ron DeSantis appears to be.  She hasn't run a campaign that's worth writing home about (though it's hard to find a Republican Senate candidate who has this cycle), and she doesn't seem considerably better than Jon Husted or Dan Sullivan are, and they're both losing their races while Moody maintains a 5-6 point lead in polling aggregate.

And, on-paper, the Democrats didn't nominate someone without credentials.  State Rep. Angie Nixon is a sitting State Representative (just like Josh Turek and James Talarico), and she's quite impressive in interviews.  After she pulled off an upset against establishment favorite Alex Vindman in the primary, she received plaudits from people (including me) for doing well in interviews in left-friendly media.  She's polished, and feels like she can cater her message to Florida, going directly after some of the bread-and-butter issues of the day...there's a reason that Moody has publicly refused to debate her.  But while Turek & Talarico look like coin toss (in Talarico's case, better than a coin toss) contenders to become senators in January, Nixon is a huge longshot.

There are two answers as to why, and I think both will largely go along your political lines over which you believe.  Nixon is a Black woman, and to date no Black woman has ever won a statewide Senate race in the South.  The Democrats did run two prominent Black women in southern states in 2022 (Demings and Justice Cheri Beasley in North Carolina) with huge pockets, but neither of them were able to win.  This isn't a cause-and-effect, I want to be clear-we have not had enough Black women running for these types of offices to have a clear idea of what they are able to achieve.  This year we have more (Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia), so we'll get a clearer picture, but it's possible that Nixon's lack of support or lack of movement could be attributed to racism or the Democratic Party not backing a candidate because they believe racism is a hill that's too hard to climb...but I don't think that's it.

The biggest issue here is Nixon's association with the Democratic Socialists of America.  Despite other candidates having ties to members of the DSA (like Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, & Peggy Flanagan), Nixon is the only one that is openly a member of the organization.  Her viewpoints are decidedly further left than you would expect of a candidate in a red state, supporting universal healthcare, free childcare, and is a strong advocate for transgender students in sports.  She is far to the left of candidates like Turek, Talarico, and Mary Peltola (D-AK), all running in similar states.

This poses a dilemma for the Leftist movement, as they have a chance to prove an adage they have long pushed: that the reason that red states are red is because we don't run Far Left candidates that show a real difference between the two parties, and that a silent majority is there if we just run the right candidates.  With Nixon, they have that option-Nixon is not a candidate anyone could compare to, say, Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin...she would fit neatly next to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders.  This is a clear choice (for the record, I also feel Turek/Peltola/Talarico are a night-and-day choice for voters, but that's not really relevant to this article).  And they are being given a gift in the cycle being super blue and that Nixon is a talented candidate.  This is not a Paula Jean Swearingen situation where she comes across as a gadfly in a doomed cycle-Florida should have its best results for the Dems since at least 2018, if not 2012, and there's a real chance the top of the ticket for Nixon (i.e. David Jolly) can win his race, helping her.  Throw in a state with a high Latino population (and Latino sentiment toward the Republicans being at an all-time low), and you have a recipe for an upset in the way we're seeing in Kansas and Texas.

But the question becomes-why aren't we seeing this support in the polls, or in the DSA backing this candidate?  Nixon is a dream option (I don't think you could find a red state DSA candidate with an easier path to victory), but the DSA and Far Left isn't rallying around her.  They aren't donating to her in a way that would give her a stronger shot at a state with multiple expensive media markets.  Nixon is everything they've begged for-a quality candidate against a middling Republican...this is their chance to prove that that silent majority exists.  The fact that they're not makes me wonder if, well, even they know this is bullshit.

Because look at the polling this year.  The candidates that are underperforming (not just Nixon, but also Flanagan, El-Sayed, and Jackson) are candidates from the Far Left.  While these other three candidates appear on-track to win (certainly the first two are) they are also posting polling numbers that are embarrassing compared to what someone like a Peltola or Talarico are doing.  There is still time to prove the pundits (and me) wrong, but if these candidates notably under-perform the nation compared to candidates like Peltola, Turek, & Sherrod Brown, it might just be because the establishment is right-the nation is more moderate than what the Far Left believes.  I would truly love to be wrong (honest-to-goodness, I'd love to see Nixon have a big upset in Florida in November & beat Moody...I'd be ecstatic to say "I was wrong"...I know I'd be voting for her if I lived in Florida), but nothing in this race seems to be sending that message.  If anything, the fact that her base seems to have abandoned this race while the establishment base of the party have gone all-in on a half dozen Senate races that felt like pipe dreams a year ago, proves the point already: the DSA is not a realistic option to win purple/red states, and as we look to 2028 (and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's presidential hopes), this message is going to be heard loud-and-clear by the people who matter.