Angie Nixon to pay fine and do community service for staging sit-in at DeSantis’ office

Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon will pay a $250 fine and provide 15 hours of community service to settle her case with Leon County after she was charged with two misdemeanors for holding a sit-in at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office in the Florida Capitol on May 15.

The Jacksonville state House member was arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting an officer without violence after she spent several hours in the governor’s office that day. Her sit-in took place after the Republican-led Legislature approved a new congressional map that could result in more seats going Republican in the midterm elections in November.

Democrats voted unanimously against the map, alleging it violated the Florida Constitution. While a lawsuit has been filed challenging the new map, a judge rejected a request by voting rights groups to block it from going into effect this year.

Nixon said Tuesday that she did not plead guilty and that she did nothing wrong that night.

“Elected leaders being accessible to the people they serve is fundamental to a functioning democracy,” Nixon said in a press release.

“People should be able to walk into their government offices, speak with their leaders directly and have a conversation — whether they agree or disagree. If people cannot come to us to demand answers, challenge our decisions or simply ask to be heard, then what are our offices for? That is what I was doing that day. I went to the Governor’s office to have a conversation about the decisions being made in our state and how they were affecting Floridians. I stood my ground then, and I stand by my actions today.”

Attorneys for Nixon say the community service will be completely outside her Senate campaign and legislative responsibilities. In a written statement, they said neither her campaign nor legislative office “will organize, publicize, or participate in the service,” and that she will not announce in advance when and where she will complete those hours.

“Representative Nixon has been consistent from the beginning that she would not plead guilty or admit wrongdoing for exercising her right to peacefully petition her government,” said Mutaqee Akbar, one of her attorneys. “This resolution honors that position. She enters no guilty plea, makes no admission of guilt, and upon completion of the agreed conditions, the State will dismiss the charges against her.

The sit-in at the governor’s office took place a day after a Florida House committee reprimanded Nixon for repeatedly blaring a mini-bullhorn on the House floor to protest DeSantis’ map. “What y’all are doing is illegal!” she yelled as members voted, pacing up and down the floor. “I will not allow you to destroy our democracy!”

That was not the first time that Nixon had protested on the floor regarding a congressional redistricted map approved by Republicans that Democrats contended violated the Florida Constitution. During a special session in 2022, Nixon and two other Democratic House members sat on the floor in the well of the chamber, chanting, “Stop the Black attack.” That legislative map erased two districts that had been held by Black members of Congress.

Nixon defeated Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary for Senate last month by 12 points. She now faces Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed to the seat by DeSantis last year, in the General Election.