U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) organized a press conference in Orlando on Friday to announce his endorsement of fellow progressive Angie Nixon, a Democratic state representative from Jacksonville, for U.S. Senate.
Nixon is running to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, a former State Attorney General who was appointed to the Senate last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill a vacancy left by now-U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Ashley Moody has built a career standing with the same billionaires and corporations who have screwed us all. This moment demands not just another politician, but it demands a fighter, someone who’s going to stand up to the status quo,” Frost shared at Friday’s press conference, hosted at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 606 union hall in Ivanhoe Village.
Nixon is running against U.S. Army combat veteran Alex Vindman — a more moderate pick who’s leading in campaign fundraising— for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat. The Democratic nominee will be chosen during Florida’s upcoming primary election on Aug. 18, 2026.
Nixon, a community organizer and former field director for one of Florida’s largest public sector unions, was joined Friday by members of the 1199 SEIU healthcare workers union, Orlando-area State Rep. Anna Eskamani — who similarly announced her endorsement of Nixon on Friday — and Democratic State Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis.
The energy in the room, buoyed by chants of “Angie! Angie!”, was palpable.
“We know that working families are being crushed right now by costs that were only exacerbated by corrupt politicians like Ashley Moody and Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.,” said Nixon. “We need bold, unapologetic leadership with solutions that actually meet the scale of crisis that people are facing every single day.”
Nixon’s platform includes support for universal free childcare, universal healthcare through Medicare for All, stronger labor protections, taxing billionaires for their fair share, and a moratorium on politically unpopular, energy-hungry data centers.
She also supports ending the filibuster, banning Congressional stock trading, and has committed to running a campaign free from corporate PAC contributions or money from the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, according to her campaign website.
“Angie is someone who is willing to fight, even when she’s the only one standing up,” said Rep. Eskamani. “And I take so much pride in being a colleague, in being a friend, and in showing up with her when those times get tough.”
Eskamani highlighted a controversial Israel-Hamas ceasefire resolution that Nixon introduced in the Florida Legislature in 2023, after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza that, within about a month, had killed more than 10,000 Palestinian men, women and children.
As other Florida Democrats admonished Nixon, or literally turned their backs on her in House chambers, Eskamani was the only other state legislator — Democrat or Republican — to support Nixon’s ceasefire resolution.
“I’m always proud of you, and I’m proud of that vote,” Eskamani said Friday. “As hard as the moment was, you stood firm, and that’s a constant inspiration for, I think, a lot of us to stand firm. Even when people give you a side eye, even when folks are disrespectful, even when folks say things that are just incredibly cruel.
“You always keep showing up,” she added. “And it was very important to me to show up for you today.”
Nixon’s Democratic opponent Vindman, in contrast, was recently confronted about his position on Israel’s assault on Palestinians by a member of the Space Coast chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America at a town hall. According to video footage shared on social media by Veterans for Peace and other progressive accounts (including Space Coast DSA), Vindman dodged the question of whether he still stands by his previous denial of Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
“You’re making stuff up,” he chastised, after the DSA member — a self-described graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy — asked Vindman if he was willing to reconsider or update his position.
Various human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, have used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Vindman, however, may be best known for testimony he shared as an aide for the National Security Council against President Donald Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019 (yes, there has been more than one). He’s positioned himself as a common-sense, anti-corruption Democrat who’s more focused on appealing to centrist Democrats, moderate and independent voters in a state that has gone redder and redder in recent election cycles.
Vindman himself was also endorsed Friday by U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Jack Reed, both of whom also served in the U.S. Armed forces. “Instead of fighting for Floridians, my opponent Ashley Moody is fighting to enrich herself, including trading more than $2 million in stocks and giving a pass to special interests that are jacking up our costs,” Vindman said in a statement, which notably excluded mention of Nixon.
“I am not a career politician,” he continued. “I am a 21-year combat veteran who is ready to fight to lower costs and crush the corruption in D.C. that is driving up costs for Florida families.”
Nixon, a candidate who’s trailing in fundraising compared to Vindman’s $7.3 million cash-on-hand war chest, recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America — a group that was significantly buoyed by the 2016 and 2020 Bernie Sanders campaigns for U.S. President.
Her decision to join followed recent victories by DSA members running for office in New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and in cities like Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston and Atlanta last year.
“If an organization is on the ground organizing for affordable housing, healthcare and fair wages, I am proud to stand in solidarity with them,” Nixon recently told the Tampa Bay Times. The organization has more than 120,000 members nationwide, including candidate for U.S. Congress Oliver Larkin in South Florida and sitting St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd — the first open socialist elected to office in Florida in over a century, in 2021.
Nixon, when asked by a reporter Friday about her ability to appeal to Florida’s independent and NPA voters, told the press she’s not concerned. “We have them knocking on doors already, making phone calls, and donating to the campaign. And so we are not going to leave any stone unturned at all. This campaign is not not about politics as usual. It’s about returning the power back into the hands of the people.”
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