Socialist state Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off a stunning upset victory Tuesday to clinch Florida‘s Democratic Senate primary against impeachment-whistleblower-turned-candidate Alex Vindman and will face Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) in the November general election.
Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was projected to win by the Associated Press with 55.8% to Vindman’s 44.3% after 89% of the vote was counted.
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The primary presented the latest test for socialist-aligned candidates following a string of other surprise insurgent victories in Democrat-on-Democrat contests across the country. Despite Florida’s large population in its southeast region of people who fled socialist nations such as Venezuela and Cuba, Nixon bested Vindman, a veteran whose twin brother is Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA).
A whistleblower report from Vindman, a former National Security Council official, helped lead to President Donald Trump‘s first impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress regarding a 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman is Jewish and criticized rising antisemitism within the Democratic Party’s “DSA wing.”
FLORIDA PRIMARIES TEST APPETITE FOR ANTISEMITISM AND ANTI-ISRAEL POLITICS ON LEFT AND RIGHT
Vindman was the primary front-runner due to his massive fundraising advantage of more than $16 million to Nixon’s less than $1 million, in addition to his name recognition. But with the GOP’s stronghold over the Sunshine State, the general election is not considered competitive by nonpartisan forecasters.
Recent polling suggests Moody, the former Florida attorney general who was appointed to her Senate seat after Marco Rubio was tapped as Trump’s secretary of state, maintains a strong lead over Nixon.
