In Lakeland visit, J.D. Vance says Angie Nixon ‘doesn’t belong in America’

LAKELAND — Vice President J.D. Vance said in Florida Thursday that it was almost “too easy” to attack the candidacies of the two top Democrats running on the statewide ballot next month, David Jolly for governor and Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate.

Yet the political reality is that he was in deep-red Polk County having to campaign for Byron Donalds and Ashley Moody. Florida, he said, is “MAGA country” with 1.5 million more registered Republicans than Democrats.

That he felt the need to come here, Democrats say, illustrates how the deepening frustration with Donald Trump’s presidency could imperil the GOP’s electoral efforts this fall as the midterm elections approach, even in conservative Florida.

Speaking during a rally in an airplane hangar at Lakeland Linder International Airport, Vance began the section of his speech targeting Nixon by noting the unpopularity of socialism with South Florida Hispanic voters in recent election cycles. He posited how Nixon herself is a self-proclaimed socialist, having joined the Democratic Socialists of America this summer.

“When Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say, ‘Then get the hell out of here. You don’t belong in America,'” he said to loud cheers from the hundreds in attendance.

Nixon responded almost immediately.

“I don’t wanna COUCH my words here: I know JD Vance, his eyeliner, and Absent Ashley Moody are used to running away from people when things get tough because they care more about themselves and their billionaire buddies than the people they represent. But this is my home,” she said in a written statement.

“The most ordinary man imaginable came to my home state to tell me to get out of America while he and Absent Ashley enjoyed the comfort of buildings my ancestors helped build. Imagine standing on the shoulders of the people who built this country and then telling their descendants they don’t belong here.

“Wanting lower property insurance and healthcare for everyday families isn’t un-American; it’s what working people deserve. They can take their tech-bro cash and their weird, intrusive agenda somewhere else, because I’m not going any damn place.”

Vance went on to mock Nixon’s Cafe Resistance Bookstore, which she runs in Jacksonville, saying it includes titles by people who killed police officers and those who said the country was founded in 1619 (the arrival of the first recorded captive Africans in North America) and not 1776.

He went on to urge the crowd to talk to people to inform them of “how crazy Angie Nixon actually is.”

“Because I have to believe that the people of Florida are smart and wise, and if we tell the truth about Angie Nixon, the people of Florida are going to kick her to the curb and elect Ashley Moody,” he said to loud cheers.

He then turned his attention to Jolly, who he derided as a man who never has held a “real job.”

Jolly worked for longtime Pinellas County GOP U.S. Rep. Bill Young for more than a decade before becoming a lobbyist, a U.S. House member himself, and then a cable news commentator.

After Jolly’s previous stints at CNN and MSNBC, Vance said, Floridians could help him after he loses next month to Donalds by helping him get a podcast “with all of 19 listeners.”

“He is desperate to rule over you,” Vance said. “He’s desperate to control you, he is desperate to have a job where he gets to tell you how to live your life.”

The VP’s appearance comes as the first vote-by-mail ballots are being sent to Floridians with 33 days to go before the midterms. And it came on a momentous day for the Florida Democratic Party, as September became the first month in five years in which the party signed up more registered voters than the Republican Party of Florida (by all of 493 voters).

Touting the Trump agenda

Vance spent another portion of his speech extolling some positive elements since Trump was re-elected nearly two years ago to the presidency.

Under Trump 2.0, he said, more than 1 million private-sector jobs have been created (the Associated Press says that’s close, with the U.S. having added 807,000 jobs since Trump’s second term began).

Inflation under the Biden administration at one point hit 8 percent, while now it’s at 3 percent, Vance continued.

Pharmaceutical drug prices are the lowest since the 1960s, he added. The Trump administration has attributed that to its deals with major pharmaceutical companies to officer certain drugs at so-called “most favored nation” prices. Several drug pricing experts recently told FactCheck.org that the reasons for the decline are a bit more complicated than that.

Vance boasted about how the violent crime rate in the U.S. has dropped in the past year-and-a-half, and said that the murder rate nationally is at a 126-year low. The FBI did report in August that the estimated murder rate fell to 4.1 per 100,000 inhabitants — the same rate recorded in 1955 and 1956 and the lowest since the FBI began keeping national estimates.

Yet the country seems resistant to the president’s record on the economy.

A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 17% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s handing of the cost of living. And 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

Before the event,  Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said while the GOP was indulging in another “MAGA pep rally,” Floridians were feeling the consequences of their “failed agenda every single day.”

She said that instead of addressing those issues, Florida Republicans were focused on “proving their loyalty to Donalds Trump.”

“And here’s the thing — voters are getting fed up. Trump’s approval ratings have fallen dramatically, as Americans feel the consequences of higher prices and growing economic uncertainty,” she said. “And suddenly, Republicans who spent years wrapping themselves in the MAGA brand are trying to create a little distance in a hopeless attempt to save themselves.”

That was a reference to reports that Donalds had scrubbed Trump’s name off his campaign website last week. In a social media post last weekend, the president derided the report as “fake news.”

Trump went on to says that if Donalds had in fact “dropped” him, “he would lose the Election, and that would be a terrible thing because he’s going to be a fantastic Governor!”

Fried responded, “MAGA’s cult leader won’t let Republicans hide from his epic failure as a president. Now, Byron’s daddy has sent J.D. Vance to keep Byron and his fellow minions in line. In Trump’s Republican Party, blind loyalty is the only option. And if anybody steps out of line, there are immediate consequences. Now J.D. Vance is flying down to Florida to give Republicans a slap on the wrist from trying to escape from Trump’s grasp.”

The next GOP presidential nominee?

Vance has been touted by political observers as the odds-on favorite to become the GOP nominee for president in 2028, but the idea that other Republicans with presidential ambitions will just step back and allow him to take the nomination without a fight seems dubious.

Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, and Arkansas U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton have all been floated as potential challengers.

A RealClearPolitics average of GOP 2028 candidates shows Vance by far leading in the polls, with 40% support. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is second with 23%. Donald Trump Jr. was at 11% and Gov. Ron DeSantis fourth at 7%.

DeSantis has not indicated interest in running in 2028. The governor was not in Lakeland Thursday. Instead, he convened a press conference with hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who is donating a record-setting $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University in part to construct a Miami campus.

Donalds, Moody, and a number of congressional Republicans had the opportunity to speak before Vance’s crowd, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Scott Franklin, and congressional candidates like Mike Beltran (running against Democrat Kathy Castor in Hillsborough County) and Sydney Gruters (running in a west Central Florida seat encompassing six counties against Democrat Kelly Kirchner).

Two people in the audience who began shouting at Vance were removed from the venue, including Tampa House state District 65 Democrat Ben Braver, who was similarly ejected during an event in Tampa last month featuring the first joint campaign appearance by Donalds and DeSantis.

“This is not a representative voter from the state of Florida. That guy is a Democrat plant. He wants to raise your taxes and release illegal aliens on the streets of Florida,” Vance said. “Well, we kicked him out, just like we’re going to kick out the rest of the Democrats who want to do the exact same thing.”