“I have been the biggest thorn in Ron DeSantis’ side,” Angie Nixon, the Democratic US Senate candidate for Florida, says about the state’s Republican governor. Mike Stewart/AP
Back in August, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon did something few outside the state saw coming: She won Florida’s Democratic US Senate primary. Her victory sent shock waves through the political world not only because her opponent Alex Vindman’s war chest dwarfed hers 19 to 1, but also because Nixon ran as a Democratic Socialist.
Today, she’s one of a number of candidates around the country affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America who could be elected to Congress this November. The sudden rise in the DSA’s popularity is reshaping the Democratic Party and America’s political landscape. But Nixon says she wants people who are considering her campaign to forget all about those labels.
“It’s not about progressive vs. moderate vs. conservative, or Democrat vs. Republican, or DSA member vs. Working Families Party member,” Nixon says. “It’s about the rich are getting richer, and they’re making it harder for working families to be alive.”
On this week’s More To The Story, Nixon talks to host Al Letson about going from community activist and comic book co-author to upstart US Senate candidate, being “the biggest thorn” in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ side, and whether her progressive message can win in deep-red Florida.
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