Corruption, affordability are themes Democrats highlight in U.S. Senate race

A Florida Democrat hasn’t held a seat in the U.S. Senate since 2019, but 42-year-old Democrat Angie Nixon is working to reverse that trend in her push to defeat incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody in the general election Nov. 3.

To accomplish her goal, Nixon is hitting her opponent hard on connections to the Hope Florida story involving grand jury’s finding that the DeSantis adminstration steered $10 million intended for Medicaid through the nonprofit before it would its way through two other nonprofits to a political committee fighting a ballot initiative on marijuana.

Similarly, no Democrat has held the Governor’s Mansion since the 90s — Lawton Chiles was elected in 1991 and died in office in 1998. Democrat David Jolly hopes to move in next year.

The weekend events unspooled as early voting was about to kick off Monday in 34 of Florida’s 67 counties. Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate for governor, and Moody began the day early by speaking to dozens of supporters in Moody’s hometown of Plant City in eastern Hillsborough County.

More than 833,000 Florida voters had already cast ballots by mail as the early voting opened in more than half of the state. All 67 Florida counties will be open for early voting by Saturday.

Speaking a few minutes after 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Fred’s Market Restaurant, Moody blasted the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the left-leaning organization Nixon joined earlier this summer.

“Sometimes, I feel like I am being punked because I’m running against a self-proclaimed card-carrying socialist who has outright said she wants to join up for an agenda that would do away with the Constitution, do away with the executive as we know it — the judicial branch — they would want to kneecap the military. Defund the police. Let non-citizens vote. This cannot happen in this country, but definitely not in the free state of Florida that we love,” Moody said.

Nixon has stated on several occasions that she does not fully align with the DSA platform, saying specifically that she does not support defunding the police or prisons or drafting a new Constitution. She does embrace other parts of its platform like Medicare for All and abolishing ICE.

The Hope Florida debate

The Hope Florida saga has triggered multiple legal battles, the latest involving the Republican Party of Florida’s attempt through a lawsuit to force off the air a Florida Democratic Party television ad that mentions the charity, which helps divert the needy from state assistance to churches and charities also offering help.

In speeches in Tampa and Tallahassee over the weekend, Nixon repeatedly jabbed at her Republican opponent as “lying, cheating, scamming, thieving Ashley Moody.” She referred to the fact that as attorney general Moody let the Hope Florida transfer transpire. Later, Gov. Ron DeSantis placed Moody in the Senate seat once held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Crowds in Tallahassee and Tampa cheered.

“Unlike Ashley Moody, I wasn’t appointed as a ‘thank you’ for my loyalty to a corrupt system. I was elected to fight that corrupt system and that is exactly what I’ve been doing in the state House,” Nixon said in Tampa Saturday. 

“She works for the corrupt and the powerful to advance herself and put millions in her own pocket. But I know who I work for. I work for you. I fight for you. And when I get to the United States Senate, working people will have a senator focused on putting more in your pocket, not lining their own pockets.”

Accompanied by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont, Nixon staged a four-city blitz across Florida dubbed “Fighting Oligarchy.” She made appearances Saturday in Tampa and Melbourne and Sunday in Gainesville and Tallahassee.

Sanders only half jokingly told the Tallahassee crowd gathered at The Moon, a concert venue about 1.5 miles away from the Florida Capitol, “I can’t keep up with this woman. She doesn’t stop.”

Crowd response

The weekend rallies were packed with people who ran the gamut in age, with some acknowledging that Sanders was the attraction, not Nixon.

For others, though, such as Florida State University students Tracy Caballero, 22, and Adayn Cao, 23, Nixon, a mother of five, was the star. They arrived an hour before the rally was scheduled to start but were forced to watch her speech outside in the parking lot, part of an overflow crowd.

They both emigrated from Cuba when they were children — she was 11 and he was 8. They are now U.S. citizens and both intend to vote for Nixon.

“We are both very saddened about what’s going on in the country right now, and we want to support politicians who are fighting with us,” Caballero told the Phoenix. 

“She is very much anti-ICE, which I love, and she just wants to do what is actually best for everybody.”

Immigration and ICE also weigh on Cao’s mind. Even though he’s a citizen, Cao acknowledged “there’s an element of fear” because he’s seen ICE agents around campus.

“I have a couple of friends that have been deported, or like family that have been deported because of the situation that’s right now,”  he said. “A lot of Cubans, they come here seeking asylum. You know, starting a life here and then being in fear that you’re gonna be kicked out. Again, it’s difficult.”

Moody has more money on hand than Nixon, but in a sign that her underdog campaign is not forlorn she edged Moody in the most recent fundraising quarter. Nixon’s campaign has also attracted visits by national Democratic figures and well-regarded progressives such as Sanders.

As the race enters the final stretch, Nixon has persisted despite initial predictions her progressive record would make it easier for Moody to prevail.

The RealClearPolitics average has the Republican up by an average of 7 points over Nixon, 50%-43%.

The GOP’s case

Moody and other Florida Republicans have derided Nixon as a radical or socialist because of her recent alliance with the DSA. Moody sharply criticized Sanders and Nixon in weekend social media posts for voicing opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included tax cuts.

She also noted that Sanders had once praised programs put in place by Cuban leader Fidel Castro (although Sanders also called Castro an authoritarian).

“Floridians whose families fled Castro’s socialist regime don’t need a lecture on it,” Moody posted on X. “They came here for freedom, and I’ll never let the radical Democrat Socialists like my opponent bring that misery to the USA.”

Nixon took time to respond to the “socialist” moniker and during her weekend campaign swing leaned into it.

“If believing that a mother working two jobs should earn enough to put food on the table is radical, then call me radical,” she said to growing cheers at the Tampa event held Saturday afternoon at the Cuban Club in Ybor City

 “If believing that a senior who works their entire life should be able to retire with dignity is radical, then call me radical. If believing that a child with cancer should get treatment whether their parents can afford it or not is radical, then call me radical. If believing that no family should go bankrupt [who] got sick is radical, then call me radical!.”

Nixon’s association with the DSA has excited some Democrats, like 30-year-old Tallahassee resident Natahsa Junkermeier, who said she supports “progressive Democrats” and has been a fan of Sanders since his presidential campaign in 2016. 

Junkermeier said she voted for Nixon in the primary because she was, drawn to her “no b—” attitude. Junkermeier said she was confident, even when the pundits weren’t, that Nixon would edge her Democratic opponent Alex Vindman in the August primary.

“I feel it’s so important to get as many progressives and Democrats in office as possible to even have a chance of stopping the more terrible things that are coming down the pipeline,” she said. 

Sanders’ draw

While it’s Nixon’s name on the ballot Nov. 3, Sanders drew people to the events. While critics fear the “socialist agenda” would bankrupt the country, Sanders countered that money would be better spent building up Americans than on the war in Iran, which the Associated Press reported last month has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $43 billion.

He mostly focused on Nixon, though.

“What this campaign is about is looking [Elon] Musk and his friends in the eye, and saying your day has come and it’s over. This country belongs to all of us. We’re going to create an economy that works for all of us, brothers and sisters. And I say this with absolute sincerity,” Sanders said.

“What you do in the next 16 days can change the course not only of American history but of world history because what happens in America obviously impacts the whole world. If we can elect Angie is the next senator from Florida. If we can end Republican control over the House and the Senate.”

Moody was introduced Monday morning by House District 69 Republican Rep. Danny Alvarez, running against a DSA-backed Democrat in Ashley Herrmann in Hillsborough County, who warned against socialism.

“Openly talking about the dismantling of the American system as if something that you should be proud of. Openly talking about getting rid of everything that has made us Florida,” he said. “Everything that has made us the great state and the free state of Florida and getting rid of everything that makes us Americans.”

Donalds spoke for just six minutes and refrained from discussing socialists or his Democratic opponent, Jolly. His message was short and succinct: That Florida is the “best state in all of America,” and that Republicans need to go the polls now to make sure their voice is heard.

The Donalds bus tour was scheduled to make stops in the Villages and Jacksonville Beach later Monday.