World News
Angie Nixon takes the Florida Senate nomination from Alex Vindman on a sixteenth of his money
By Staff Writer | 20 August 2026
The state representative, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic nomination for the seat held by Ashley Moody. Vindman raised more than 16 million dollars for the primary; Nixon raised under 1 million.
Angie Nixon, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, has won the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat currently held by the Republican Ashley Moody, beating Alex Vindman, the former National Security Council aide who was widely expected to take it. Vindman raised more than 16 million dollars for the primary, a large sum for a Democrat in a state that has moved steadily Republican. Nixon raised under 1 million.
She was first elected to the state House in 2020, is a native of Jacksonville and worked as a union organiser before entering politics. She joined the Democratic Socialists of America recently and is also a member of the Working Families Party. She addressed her opponent's supporters directly on the night.
The great thing about our movement is we are not trying to force everyone to agree with us and believe exactly the same thing
Angie Nixon, Florida state representative
The candidate who was supposed to win
Vindman came to national attention as a witness in the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump in 2019, when he gave evidence to Congress about a call between the president and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The president was acquitted by the Senate and Vindman was later removed from his post at the National Security Council. He was recruited to run for the seat by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and had endorsements from several sitting senators. The two candidates never debated. He conceded on the night and endorsed her.
I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody. I hope you'll join me.
Alex Vindman, former National Security Council aide
The president marked the result with a social media post calling Vindman a treasonous creep and predicting certain defeat for Nixon in November.
What the seat actually is
The winner in November serves only the final two years of the term Marco Rubio won in 2022, and would have to stand again in 2028 for a full six. Moody was appointed to the seat by the governor, Ron DeSantis, after Rubio was taken into the Cabinet, and she saw off several challengers in her own primary on Tuesday.
Florida has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2012. A nonpartisan election handicapper rates the seat solid Republican, and analysts moved the race further towards the Republicans immediately after the result. Nixon is an advocate of cutting United States military aid to Israel, a position that has put her at odds with parts of her own party in a state with a large Jewish population.
The pattern beyond one race
The result extended a run for the left of the Democratic Party, which narrowly lost a Wisconsin gubernatorial primary the week before. On the Republican side, several candidates the president had backed lost their races on the same night, among them the congressman Cory Mills.
Some Democratic strategists took the defeat of the better funded candidate as a relief rather than a blow, on the view that the seat was probably out of reach in any event and that the party has now avoided spending heavily to find out.
Sixteen million dollars against under one is the number that will be quoted back in every primary between now and November.